AHS Irish Red Ale secondary question

[pattim]

This is my second AHS kit batch of beer and my first one with a glass carbouy for a secondary. It's been over two weeks and fermentation has slowed to almost nothing, except since it's in glass, I can see there are tiny bubbles still rising constantly. Will this stop after, say, 3 weeks? I did add a little crushed beano to get it to ferment everything - maybe this is typical of a 'beano beer?'
Thanks,
Patty

 

[rhamilton]

Have to taken a gravity measurement?

 

[pattim]

I'm not that advanced yet, just thinking of the "2-weeks rule" I read about on brewing forums.

 

[homebrewdad]

I can't speak to the beano, never heard of using that. However, bubbles mean literally nothing.

Early on, bubbes in your airlock are an indicator of fermentation, but your beer can ferment without this (say, if you don't have a perfectly airtight seal).

The ONLY way to know if fermentation is done is to take a couple of gravity readings. If the reading is stable for, say, three days, then you know fermentation is done.

However, it's a good idea to leave most beers for a while after gravity gets stable - this allows the yeast to clean up off flavors.

 

[BrewKnurd]

No idea what's typical for behavior of a beano beer. But I have to ask, what were you trying to accomplish with adding the beano? Adding beano is likely going to result in a beer that is more attenuated, with less body and residual sugars that is intended for the recipe. In other words, you're going to have a thinner beer. If that's what you're going for then super, cuz that's what you're likely to get.

 

[rhamilton]

Yea until you get a hydrometer, you are basically clueless to the status of your fermentation. Worst case scenario, you have a stuck fermentation, you bottle it, and it makes bottle bombs.

Did you do extract or all-grain?

 

[irunxcjm]

I'm confused. Did you do your primary in the glass carboy, or did you already transfer it to the secondary? It shouldn't be fermenting at all in the secondary. The term "secondary fermenter" is kind of confusing. Professional brewers call this the brite tank. It is for clearing only. Many people (including me) do not even use secondaries any more. They wait 3-4 weeks and bottle or keg. This gives the yeast time to clean up after themselves. Also, there is nothing "advanced" about taking a gravity reading. Use a turkey baster, pull a sample and place it in the tube the hydrometer came in. Read the number and you're done. It's an invaluable tool, especially if you still want to do a secondary. It's the only way you are going to know it's done.

 

[pattim]

I'm confused. Did you do your primary in the glass carboy, or did you already transfer it to the secondary? It shouldn't be fermenting at all in the secondary. The term "secondary fermenter" is kind of confusing. Professional brewers call this the brite tank. It is for clearing only. Many people (including me) do not even use secondaries any more. They wait 3-4 weeks and bottle or keg. This gives the yeast time to clean up after themselves. Also, there is nothing "advanced" about taking a gravity reading. Use a turkey baster, pull a sample and place it in the tube the hydrometer came in. Read the number and you're done. It's an invaluable tool, especially if you still want to do a secondary. It's the only way you are going to know it's done.

I have been reading in posts all over the place that 2 - 4 weeks is the time in the fermenter, and this seems to vary between making "good" Mr. Beer batch or a "good" high-end kit batch (like AHS). About everyone says at least one month in bottle conditioning (again, Mr. Beer is more like 2-weeks-to-a-month). I was on the White Labs site and saw that attenuation on one particularly fast yeast was about 1 week. So sort of gathering these alltoghther in my head seemed to boil down to something like, "3 weeks in the carbouy and a month in the bottle."

I just got a glass carbouy and moved my batch into that to free up the bucket for another batch... That one is getting it's secondary *in* the primary. There are two AHS Irish Reds in there now. One with Coopers dry yeast and one with White Labs WLP007 which is supposed to be fast, attenuative, and floculant (some of the comments claim it's finished fermenting by 1 week - but, of course, I'm sure everyone would say that it still needs a couple weeks to 'clean up' after itself, as well as a good bottle conditioning).

About beano beer: http://***********/stories/techniqu...ll-grain-brewing/51-21-alcohol-all-grain-beer
You're prolly right, it will be thin. We'll see. I tend to go for dark beers, so there is a lot of extra stuff to taste, but we'll see. My AHS chocolate stout batch had about 1/2 lb chocolate added.

 

[pattim]

Forgot to mention that I added nutrients (AHS capsule) and oxygenated with oxygen.

 

[BrewKnurd]

About beano beer: http://***********/stories/techniqu...ll-grain-brewing/51-21-alcohol-all-grain-beer
You're prolly right, it will be thin. We'll see. I tend to go for dark beers, so there is a lot of extra stuff to taste, but we'll see. My AHS chocolate stout batch had about 1/2 lb chocolate added.

Right... for a 20% alcohol beer, I understand why you want to thin it out. I'm just trying to understand what you were going for in this case. There may be less drastic measures to accomplish what you're going for. Or just keep using beano.

 

[pattim]

Right... for a 20% alcohol beer, I understand why you want to thin it out. I'm just trying to understand what you were going for in this case. There may be less drastic measures to accomplish what you're going for. Or just keep using beano.

I don't know - I'm just playing around I guess... maybe low carbs?

 

[BrewKnurd]

I don't know - I'm just playing around I guess... maybe low carbs?

Well yes, I guess it will do that.

 

[pjj2ba]

I'm confused. ..... The term "secondary fermenter" is kind of confusing. Professional brewers call this the brite tank. It is for clearing only. Many people (including me) do not even use secondaries any more. They wait 3-4 weeks and bottle or keg. This gives the yeast time to clean up after themselves......

Just wanted to clear up some mis-information. Yes a brite tank is used for clearing, but it is also used for bulk aging. The only difference between a using a secondary (brite tank) versus doing a primary only beer, it that the bulk aging is occurring off the yeast in one case and on the yeast in the other. The yeast that are in suspension are the ones doing the "clean up". Once yeast settle out, they are not very metabolically active and contribute very little to the active metabolic aspects of bulk aging. "Cleaning up" works equally well with both methods.

As to the OP, if you are seeing little bubbles in the beer itself, not the airlock, then these are probably just little bits of dissolve CO2 coming out of solution, likely due to little changes in temperature (or even atmospheric pressure).

I'm not sure how fast the beano works on the residual carbohydrates to break them down into fermentable sugars, but I recall reading that it isn't a super fast process. The danger is creating bottle bombs. The best thing to do is get yourself a hydrometer and do some testing over the period of a couple days. Or, just get it more time (like a week or more) and then bottle it up.