Secondary Still Active?

[Davida]

I have been home brewing for almost a year now with good results. Nothing too complex but real yummy. Extract brewing with some grain adjuncts.

Right now I have an Oktoberfest / Marzen (can't lager) ale in my secondary from a recipe I got off the website. It was in the primary for 14 days. The FG was stable and right on the money (1013). It has been in the secondary now for 7 days and I am still seeing activity through the fermentation lock.

I secondary age all my brews for 14 days after primary is complete. This is the first time I have seen activity in the secondary.

Should I be concerned?

 

[stubbornman]

Nothing to worry about, completely normal. Secondary is just another place for fermentation to keep going just off the bulk of the primary yeast.

When I secondary, I do so at a slightly higher temperature and have similar activity every time.

 

[Brewham]

Such "activity" can be the result of changing temperature. CO2 coming out of solution or air and liquid expanding in a warming room is common. If your FG is on target, there is little or no sugar left for the yeast to feast.

 

[Davida]

Thanks for the quick response.

If I am still seeing activity, can I bottle or is it best to wait until there is no activity?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the quick response.

If I am still seeing activity, can I bottle or is it best to wait until there is no activity?

If the SG has not changed over the course of at least three days, it's fine to bottle it.

 

[2brew1cup]

^ die

underground and under the influence

 

[vabites]

Odd, I just bottled an Oktoberfest / Marzen of my own yesterday and had a pretty similar experience. I had it in the primary for 3 weeks, dropped the temp to 45ish for the last 3 days and racked over to secondary (so I could use my primary for something else). I noticed air lock activity for the entire 3 weeks it was on secondary, slow but still there. Strange though, the gravity reading was 1.012 at transfer and 1.010 at bottling 3 weeks later. I didn't expect that at all. I ferment between 66 - 68f. All of this had me wondering if maybe some breweries recirculate and that led me to another thread I found on here. And...there I go wandering off again.

Also, let me add I was not drinking while working with my beer ever since that one time...