Should I wait to transfer??

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andy32pinkerton

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So i went to transfer my Belgian Tripel to a 6 gallon carboy, and when I open the primary fermenter there is about 2 or 3 inches of beautiful, thick white foam on top of the beer. I was taken aback as I have never seen that before but I think it's a good thing. Should I hold off transferring to the secondary? It has been in primary for about 2 weeks and assumed it was done fermenting.

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I'd wait. Why are you racking to secondary? Do you plan on letting it sit for a very long time?
 
Yeah as it's gonna be about an 8% sipper and has a fairly high OG, I am going to let it sit in secondary for about 3 months and also don't want to wait that long before I brew again lol

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The transferring aspect is variable depending on reasoning and circumstances. There might be reasons to leave as-is for a while longer and there might be reasons why you should transfer it. We probably need more information to give a more thought-out response. There certainly is no harm in leaving it for another week or two in primary though, unless you need your fermenter for another batch in which case you should check gravity (at least).

Regarding the krausen still on top. I've worked with a few ale yeasts that simply don't like to fall. In those cases, I'll either given them a hand by jostling the fermenter a little bit, a few times, to encourage the krausen to begin sinking, or I'll just rack from under the krausen. It kind of depends on my schedule and how long the beer has been sitting that way. The three strains whose krausen has lingered on top for a long time have been: Westmalle Yeast (i.e. WY3787/WLP530), Odell Yeast (i.e. WLP029 German/Kolsch), and Brewferm Blanche Ale. Once I've jostled; once I've waited; twice I've racked from underneath; and once I've collected the krausen for later use and racked.
 
Shaking it won't cause any issues? I think I'll just give it a bit of a gentle rocking and check in about a week or so

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Shaking it won't cause any issues? I think I'll just give it a bit of a gentle rocking and check in about a week or so

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Shaking will but not some jostling :D (gentle rocking would be perfect).
 
So just as an update to this, I gently swirled the fermenter and about 3 days later, the foam started creeping into my airlock and I had to rig up a blowoff tube. Could it still be fermenting? It's been 2 weeks but the ambient temperature in the basement is only about 63.

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