Airlock activity in secondary

[BrooZer]

Hey all,

I was just wondering about something. I racked my beer to the seondary a couple days ago after it feremented in primary for 2 weeks. It was at its f.g before I racked it.

I added some hops to the secondary for dry hopping.

The airlock has begun to bubble once again? Is it oxygen from the hops? is it fermenting again? Can anyone shed some light on this, it seems strange. Also i have been using the rocking method to sink the pellet hop debris.

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

Oh, I'm dryhopping right now and have some airlock activity too. It's co2 coming out of solution.

 

[BrooZer]

Oh, I'm dryhopping right now and have some airlock activity too. It's co2 coming out of solution.

Yooper, would you elaborate. What solution?

 

[RichBrewer]

Even your flat beer sitting in the fermenter has some CO2 suspended in it. The same thing happens to wine. When you do something to disturb the beer like racking it or jostling it around it will release CO2. The yeast can also get kicked up and produce a bit more fermentation but mostly you are seeing the suspended CO2 being released.

 

[BrooZer]

Even your flat beer sitting in the fermenter has some CO2 suspended in it. The same thing happens to wine. When you do something to disturb the beer like racking it or jostling it around it will release CO2. The yeast can also get kicked up and produce a bit more fermentation but mostly you are seeing the suspended CO2 being released.

Thanks Rich Brewer!

Should i stop rocking the carboy to try and settle the hops? Im not shaking it or anything just a gentle rock back and forth to try and get the hop matter to sink.

 

[malkore]

correct, do NOT rock the secondary carboy.

did you add hops directly, or use a hop bag? most use a hop bag, grain/muslin bag or cheesecloth for dry hopping.

 

[BrooZer]

correct, do NOT rock the secondary carboy.

did you add hops directly, or use a hop bag? most use a hop bag, grain/muslin bag or cheesecloth for dry hopping.

I just dumped the pellets in. I posted another thread awhile back and a couple people suggested to gently rock the carboy to get the hops to settle from the top of the carboy.

Why would someone suggest that if it is bad?

 

[Yooper]

You won't hurt it by rocking gently, but I just leave mine. I have a huge mess in my carboy right now! I have 3 ounces of hops dryhopping my pale ale, and I used a bag for the leaf hops, but the pellets have disintigrated into floating sludge. I should post a picture! Anyway, the stuff will settle a little, and when I rack it, I'll move it to the island where I'll be working the night before so it won't be all stirred up. I'll rack carefully and try to avoid the gunk as much as I can. I'll also use a sanitized large fine-mesh bag over my racking cane to catch the stuff I can't avoid racking.

It'll be fine- the hops will still give up their aroma and flavor.

 

[amishland]

please post a pic I would like to see it.

 

[Yooper]

Ok, the pictures aren't very good, but here they are:

That white "island" in the middle is the bag full of leaf hops. You can see that many of the pieces of leaves have fallen out of the bag and are floating. The pellets have made sludge!

 

[BrooZer]

You won't hurt it by rocking gently, but I just leave mine. I have a huge mess in my carboy right now! I have 3 ounces of hops dryhopping my pale ale, and I used a bag for the leaf hops, but the pellets have disintigrated into floating sludge. I should post a picture! Anyway, the stuff will settle a little, and when I rack it, I'll move it to the island where I'll be working the night before so it won't be all stirred up. I'll rack carefully and try to avoid the gunk as much as I can. I'll also use a sanitized large fine-mesh bag over my racking cane to catch the stuff I can't avoid racking.

It'll be fine- the hops will still give up their aroma and flavor.

Yooper, do you dry hop in the primary after fermentation? Also, i have tried the muslin bag over racking cane and I seemed to get a ton of air bubbles from it. does that happen to you>?

 

[Yooper]

Yooper, do you dry hop in the primary after fermentation? Also, i have tried the muslin bag over racking cane and I seemed to get a ton of air bubbles from it. does that happen to you>?

I have dryhopped in the primary after about 10-14 days, but I usually don't. I like to rack onto my dryhops in the secondary and then let it sit a week or so. So, if I'm planning on dryhopping, I usually primary 2-3 weeks, and then dry hop in the secondary for a week or so. That pretty batch pictured above will probably also be dryhopped in the keg.

I haven't had any issues with air, but sometimes I get clogged if the mesh bag bunches up at the bottom.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I dryhopped my pale ale last night. Used Leaf hops. I racked to my secondary the night before and let it settle for a day. I then just dropped my hops in. I went down to look at it today (as I do everyday) and the leafs seem to have rehydrated and they are puffed up full buds. I plan on leaving the for the two weeks before bottling. Wondering if they will settle over the next 2 weeks or if they will float on top the whole time. IF they float it seems that some will get wasted cause they're not all in contact with the wort. (are floating on top of each other).