Did I rack too early?

[LaFours]

Hi Guys,

I brewed up an APA 7 days ago and transferred it to secondary today. I gave the beer a whiff, and man, my nostrils were burning from the alcohol or CO2. Is this normal?

Part of me thinks I may have transferred a bit too early, there was still a bit of krausen, about an inch, and the airlock in secondary is bubbling about every 40-45 seconds.

Do you think I'll have any bad results because I racked maybe a bit too early?

The color of the beer looks nice, and the smell, although strong, is good. This is also my firt time dry hopping, so I hope that goes ok. I just threw them into secondary and racked right on top of them.

Sorry I'm kinda rambling at this point, I just want to be sure that you guys think it'll be ok in the end.

I did not take an O.G., but did take a reading when I racked to secondary. Reading was 1.011.

 

[ryser2k]

I'm no expert, but I am brewing an APA right now too, and I noticed the same thing you noticed when racking to secondary after a week. I just bottled the beer on Friday though, after two weeks in the secondary, and it smelled fantastic. Those pungent alcohol odors were replaced by a great hoppy smell. I think I might start dry hopping more of my ales now, it really has a great effect.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much, just let it sit in the secondary for a week or two. If it still smells funky after that, then I would start to worry...

 

[uglygoat]

it's fine, it is just stil fermenting, and it was in the primary long enough, it will not hurt it to ferment somemore in the secondary. i have a higher gravity beer still bubbling after a month in the secondary... i'm just waiting on that one. twiddles thumbs...

that pungent smell is most likely co2. did you primary in a bucket, and stick yer nose down in there before you racked? you will get a wiff that can knock you back...

i would only worry if, after you bottle it and go to drink it that you can't choke it down, but sounds like things are fine for you.

 

[Tony]

All I know is, mine is still fermenting away in the secondary! I did the same thing you did LaFours, and all is well.

Dont ya love that new beer smell when you open the primary???

 

[Janx]

Dump it. It's ruined.

Just kidding. But in reality, you *CAN'T* ruin your beer by racking too early. What problem do you anticipate by doing that exactly? I mean all you're really doing is moving the beer to a clean new home. It isn't critical to the process at all. You don't even need to do it and you'll still have beer.

Lotta folks worrying about "Will my beer be OK?" this morning. Y'all all need to stop worrying. There's no way we can know whether it will be OK, and you can't take back the fact that you racked it anyway. Only thing to do is wait and try your beer. If you're good about sanitation, it's really more difficult to screw up than a lot of you seem to imagine. Cheers!

 

[LaFours]

it's fine, it is just stil fermenting, and it was in the primary long enough, it will not hurt it to ferment somemore in the secondary. i have a higher gravity beer still bubbling after a month in the secondary... i'm just waiting on that one. twiddles thumbs...

that pungent smell is most likely co2. did you primary in a bucket, and stick yer nose down in there before you racked? you will get a wiff that can knock you back...

i would only worry if, after you bottle it and go to drink it that you can't choke it down, but sounds like things are fine for you.

Hehe, yea I took the wiff in primary right before I racked. It was pretty funny actually, very surprising.

 

[jhudson]

It's funny you mention this because I did the same thing with the bock that I'm brewing. I stuck my head down in the primary to get the good wiff of brewing beer, and I think I dang near got CO2 poisoning because I got really really *high*. I enjoyed it though!

 

[rightwingnut]

and I think I dang near got CO2 poisoning because I got really really *high*. I enjoyed it though!

Hmmmm...now how can you collect that air into quantities?