Co2 still in the secondary

[77bawls]

I brewed a Texas Blond on the 30th, racked it to the secondary on the 6th. It's now the 13th and I just took a sample and shook it. There is still co2 in the beer. The airlock has been bubbling the whole time. Is it okay to bottle at this time?

 

[Hex23]

It's not at all uncommon for there to be CO2 in the beer at that point, especially at lower temps, where more CO2 can be dissolved. I just bottled a couple of lagers and they looked nearly fully carbed when I pulled them out of the fridge at 34F. CO2 is a poor indicator of time to bottle. The only real way to tell is by consistent gravity readings.

It seems like you were using a 7-day rule to tell when to move to secondary? If you are going to use a secondary, I would highly recommend making your decision to rack based on SG (if you're not already). This is another possible reason you still have CO2. If the fermentation in the primary was not done, then fermentation continued in the secondary, which is not the intention of a secondary.

 

[JonK331]

The only way to tell is to take a hydrometer reading. There will be CO2 left in the beer regardless and you will add sugar to create more during bottling. What you don't want is oxygen.

The thing you have to remember is that the yeast don't care when YOU want the beer to be done. The yeast don't have a calendar and are finished when they are finished. There are way too many variables to determine whether the beer is finished just by looking at numbers on the calendar.

 

[77bawls]

OG was 1.039 or 1.040, and FG was 1.01 on the 6th and it's 1.01 today. I don't go by the 7 day rule, more like 10 or 14.

My neighbor wants an entire batch. It was 7 days so I figured I would brew while I didn't have my kid here to distract me. If I didn't brew then I wouldn't be able to brew till the 5th of next month.

I think I'm going to go for it. It's hard for me to do it during the week because of my son and work. Plus it will give me an idea how many bottles I will need to buy.

 

[McGarnigle]

Well, it's a bit early, but if the FG has been down an 1.010 for that long, you're not likely to have bottle bombs. The beer should benefit from more time, but if you need to do it now, you probably can.

 

[JonK331]

It's really best to be a bit more patient. I usually go a minimum of three weeks before I even take a reading. Once in the fermenter, beer makes itself, we have to know the right times to intervene to get it the way we want. If we intervene at the wrong times or try to make the beer fit our schedule, instead of letting it take its course, we can get less than perfect results.

To save time, you can skip the secondary next time, this step is totally unnecessary for a beer of that gravity.

 

[Hex23]

Good to hear your taking gravity readings and not strictly going by calendar. I have found that skipping the secondary and doing a 3-4 week primary, my beer tastes cleaner and conditions faster. So if you can get the time I'd recommend trying that. I understand your scheduling issues. I had a hard enough time making a starter today with my kids buzzing around the house. Sometime you just do what you can. I had to leave a beer in primary for 6 weeks once because I got sick and had other family obligations. I've found that just letting things ride and giving them more time, they usually turn out better.

Good luck!

 

[SKMO]

The airlock has been bubbling the whole time. Is it okay to bottle at this time?

Pretty much that would be an obvious NO, if the airlock is still showing activity. Wait until the gravity reading stabilizes, then give it another week.

 

[77bawls]

Pretty much that would be an obvious NO, if the airlock is still showing activity. Wait until the gravity reading stabilizes, then give it another week.

Gravity has been stable for a week that's why I'm asking. I don't have high hopes for this beer anyway. It was just a bucket of LME, no additional grains at all.

 

[JonK331]

Sounds like you don't want to hear that you should give it more time so why ask? Just bottle it then. Cheers!

 

[77bawls]

Nah that's not it at all. I'll give it another week or two. I have a snow camping trip next weekend. If I'm not too tired Sunday I'll do it then or I'll wait till the next weekend.