A couple of secondary bubbling and bucket questions! (want advice)

[Roymathieu]

I guys,

I' m pretty new at brewing (second batch and first was a fail). I just racked an IPA to secondary after a full 4 days of primary in a bucket with the lid simply over it but not sealed. I made the transfer cause the krausen had started falling down pretty much and I had been told that this is the time to rack to secondary to make sure no oxygen gets in my beer (considering the lid not sealed).

Now it's been approx 14 hours since I racked and it's been bubbling pretty much (every 20-30 secs I would say). I did take my SG before the transfer and it seemed pretty spot on and tasted the beer (the sample for my gravity) and tasted pretty darn good.

Now I want to know what you guys think cause my first beer was a big fail. At the start in my secondary it had a orange colour...it was a 'dark' orange but still. After 2 weeks it had became very dark...a kind of dark red and the taste was no good. My recipe was not that great and I screwed up during the process but still...I don't want this to happen with this batch of beer.

I know bubbling in secondary is not supossed to happen so I'm a bit stressed with the fact that it bubbles a lot. Let's say my stuff was well sanitized...is their another risk in racking to quickly? And what do you guys think of primary in a bucket with a lid not sealed? How long can it stay there with no risk?

Thanks guys!

 

[porterpounder]

Bubbling doesn't matter much. Even after fermentation completes the beer will off gas CO2 to reach equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere. 4 days on the primary yeast in most cases is not nearly long enough. The yeast have to ferment and then clean up after themselves. Early transfers do not allow this to happen and can lead to excessive acetaldehyde an diacetyl off-flavors. Skip the secondary altogether and keep to beer on the primary yeast 10-14 days then bottle or keg. Transferring earlier doesn't reduce oxygen exposure either, so no matter when you transfer to a secondary you're risking oxidation issues. Keep the secondaries to big, big beers and secondary addition/fruit beers.

 

[m00ps]

yes^
If you keep doing unnecessary secondaries (esp for IPAs), your next few brews are going to be a fail too

 

[Roymathieu]

Ok so it is not true what I've heard that you need to transfer from a bucket with a lid not sealed when fermentation starts to slow down? My next ales will only be in a carboy primary but can't imagine that transferring to secondary will make your beer fail everytime...it was the norm before. I don't think the transfer was what went wrong the first time.

 

[Horseshoot]

Why are you doing primary in a bucket without the lid sealed? I am just curious.

Mike

 

[meatcleaver]

^ me too...
seal that lid & stick an airlock on it.

 

[Roymathieu]

To be honest, it will be the last time. When I bought my stuff to start making beer, the guy said : You do the primary in the bucket and you leave the lid on top without completly sealing it. The beer will be protected by the fermentation process. When you are close to the end of active fermentation usually after 4-6 days (IPA), transfer to the carboy cause once the fermentation is over, you don't want your beer in contact with oxygen.

Next batch, I'll do my primary in my carboy and leave it until bottling. I was curious for the bubble but at least, this batch does not seem to have been affected by contamination or oxydation!