When to take FG measurement?

[Paradigm]

I was over in the Fermentation & Yeast sub-forum and someone said that they took their FG while transferring a Belgian Quad to the secondary. I thought that the fermentation was still happening when you secondary, just slower.

I'm going to be dry-hopping an IIPA that I brewed next week, should I take my FG then or wait?

 

[Trox]

It is my understanding that you want a stable FG prior to transferring so that you don't accidentally stall out the yeast. You can also just as easily dry hop in your primary adn save yourself the hassle of transferring.

Personally I would check the FG wait 2 days and check again; if stable dry hop away in the primary, if not stable then wait 5-7 days and then do my checks again.

 

[Paradigm]

It is my understanding that you want a stable FG prior to transferring so that you don't accidentally stall out the yeast. You can also just as easily dry hop in your primary adn save yourself the hassle of transferring.

Personally I would check the FG wait 2 days and check again; if stable dry hop away in the primary, if not stable then wait 5-7 days and then do my checks again.

We're aiming to dry hop in the secondary because we have like a 4" deep layer of trub we want to get the beer off of for when we add the flavor hops.

 

[bobeer]

I'd wait but that's because I brew 4 gallon batches and don't want to keep wasting the beer by checking the gravity over and over again. Personally I don't secondary but it is possible to kick-start fermentation again while transferring into the secondary. I would take a gravity reading about 2 weeks after fermentation has started. If you're using dry yeast there's a couple to a few days lag time before the yeast start to do their thing. I usually wait 3 weeks for an average gravity beer and don't even bother taking the FG until I'm kegging/bottling.

 

[masterfool101]

I was over in the Fermentation & Yeast sub-forum and someone said that they took their FG while transferring a Belgian Quad to the secondary. I thought that the fermentation was still happening when you secondary, just slower.

I'm going to be dry-hopping an IIPA that I brewed next week, should I take my FG then or wait?

OK, this comes from a misuse of what "secondary" vessels are for. Prior to transferring, you want to be at your Finished Gravity. Secondary "fermentation" really isn't about fermentation. It's about the yeast cleaning up off flavors, and giving our beer time to bulk age. It's not necessary to use a secondary vessel for this - even when you're adding dry hops or oak - but many brewers do it to cut down on trub in the final brew. There is actually a number of write ups out there that say the average home brewer does more damage to their beer trying to transfer it than they do by adding products into the primary vessel.

That being said, if you WANT to get your beer off the trub, I would wait until you reach a stable FG. Transferring early, as was posted earlier, may result in residual, unfermented sugar.

When I DO dry hop, I like to do it as close to bottling as possible. If you're going to dry hop for 4 days, add the hops 4 days before you're ready to bottle. This will provide the freshest hop aroma in the bottle.