Too late to rack to secondary?

[Madtown Brew]

I brewed an IPA on 7/9 and haven't been able to rack it due a slow conditioning nut brown ale that is holding up my secondary. There is little if any active fermentation going on in the IPA primary anymore. I haven't seen it bubble for a couple days. Thing is, the plan was to dry hop the IPA in the secondary and I don't want to lose that extra step of hoppy goodness. Plus I'm a bit worried because this was my second PM and I KNOW there is a lot of trub in there.

So, is it too late to rack? Any way to purge the carboy before or after racking to remove the oxygen? I was thinking of maybe using those compressed air cans you use to clean electronics. Are those CO2?

I'm planning on bottling the brown ale tomorrow and wondered what the consensus was on this.

 

[Muss]

I may be wrong, but secondary is simply somwhere to put your beer so it can age and clear while you brew up another batch in your fermenter. It's never too late to rack to secondary, but you can probably dry hop in the primary and let it age for another week or so then it will clear anyway and will be ready to bottle.

 

[dibby33]

Don't worry about it, just rack it to secondary as you were going to do. ...Try not to splash the wort.

 

[PT Ray]

Slow down, if it does not feel right to package the brown don't rush it, the ipa is fine where it is. Nothing wrong with giving the ipa a few weeks to ferment and drop clear. When you transfer to secondary, there will be co2 suspended in the beer that will be released to scrub out the o2 in the secondary. When dry hopping, I always noticed some additional fermentation, creating more co2 to replace any oxygen.

 

[Madtown Brew]

Seriously?

I guess I'm just so worried about oxidation from the headspace in the secondary. Each and every brew is so precious, I'd hate to cause unnecessary nasty flavors if it can be avoided. Any reason not to just dry hop right into the primary and let it sit for another 10 days?

Sure would be a good excuse to go get a new 6.5 gal carboy so I can still brew more this weekend. Can anyone tell me how much taller a 6.5 gal carboy is than a 5 gal?

Edit: just read PT Ray's post. good pioint about the dissolved CO2 in the brew. Probably would be fine then.

 

[Sea]

No problem dry-hopping in the primary, some do it all the time. I like to do it in the secondary because when racking I like to get all the beer I can out of the primary, and a little trub always gets sucked up near the end. This settles out in secondary for a nice clear finish. If I was you, I'd go get another secondary, rack, dry-hop, and brew. That way, in the future if you have beers that are taking a while to mature, they can do it the secondary and you can ferment more in your primary.

6.5 is about 4-5" taller I think.

 

[Willie3]

My 6.5 is 2" taller. They are much wider than 5s but not much taller. At least mine aren't.

- WW

 

[Madtown Brew]

Well, the GF just got a flat tire and a hefty parking ticket on the same day! So no new carboys or brew ingredients for me this weekend. Sucks too 'cuz I'm just finishing the final touches on my "bastard" son of a fermentation chiller. Oh well.

Thanks to all for the replies.