Did I rush from primary to secondary?

[drayman86]

Brewed an Alpha King clone; pretty big beer, w/ OG = 1.067.

Put on primary for six days until the krausen fell and fermentation slowed. Racked to secondary. G now = 1.042.

Dry hopped and after about 10 hours on the secondary, fermentation has picked back up.

Did I rush this? Should the beer have been left on the primary longer? I'm hoping I'll still get the predicted FG of about 1.011.

Thanks.

 

[Brew-boy]

Sounds like you did rush it. Primary is done when it is done, take a hydro reading to be sure. I like my primary to go 10 to 14 days I dont even think of messing with it until then.

 

[drayman86]

Sounds like you did rush it.

That's what I was afraid of.

I'm hoping the secondary will continue to crank well and finish the job.

 

[photogscott]

Active fermentation for ales usually completes within a week. Often less. How often was your airlock bubbling? Did your temp drop? As stated, do a gravity check for ease of mind

 

[drayman86]

Active fermentation for ales usually completes within a week. Often less. How often was your airlock bubbling? Did your temp drop? As stated, do a gravity check for ease of mind

Two piece airlock was bubbling a very small bubble about once every 20-30 seconds. Probably should've let that continue, eh?

Temp. remained constant at about 69F.

Secondary is now more active than primary was before racking. This was the case with the last "big" beer I did, i.e. the Griffin Spit IPA for 2007 Big Brew.

Will be certain to check gravity next time. Was a bit concerned about the large amount of flocculation/trub at the bottom of the carboy. Didn't want off-flavors from this, however after a bit more consideration it would've taken a looooong time for this to occur.

Well, ya' learn somethin' with each batch. How much fun would this be if everything was easy?

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Did you aerate the wort? That could be why your fermentation was going slow. Moving to secondary might have been a good thing, resuspended the yeast, although a nice swirl on the primary could have probably done the same thing.

 

[drayman86]

Did you aerate the wort? That could be why your fermentation was going slow. Moving to secondary might have been a good thing, resuspended the yeast, although a nice swirl on the primary could have probably done the same thing.

Thanks for the reply, seefresh.

The wort was aerated as best I could by suspending CFC outlet hose high above the level in the carboy to cause as much agitation as possible.

 

[Bugeaterbrewing]

Most newer brewers that use a secondary do rack too soon for the same reason you mentioned, i.e. "picking up off flavors off the trub". People are much too paranoid about this issue. If you were leaving your beer in primary for 10-12 weeks or longer, then you might start to worry. Even then you might still get away with it. Go ahead and let fermentation finish out. Take a gravity reading before racking, if it is close to your expected FG, then rack. Quite often, I don't even do a secondary any more. I just leave the beer in primary for around 3-4 weeks and then keg.

About the only time I do secondary is when I want to use the yeast cake less than 2 weeks after brewing the first batch. Even then I still check the gravity first to make sure it is close to the expected FG. If not, I will postpone the next brew.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

 

[drayman86]

Thanks, Wayne. I understand from further research that it takes a loooooong time to obtain off flavors from the yeast cake/trub.

Won't make this mistake again, adn will likely eliminate the secondary fermenters except when dry hopping.

 

[drayman86]

Well, the Alpha King Clone in the secondary just took right off. I'm confident that the final gravity will be near what I want.

Thanks for all the replies.

Greg

 

[drayman86]

Took a gravity reading on 7-12-07, and it was about 1.017-18, so it's very close to the estimated 11. I'll keg on 7-20-07 for a party on the 27th.

Thanks again for all the advice. I'll know better next time; just let the primary run until the FG is reached.

 

[joebou4860]

I'll keg on 7-20-07 for a party on the 27th.

Isn't this rushing things a bit? From the original post it looks like this was brewed around 7/1. The fermentation may be completed but this beer will not be anywhere near hitting its peak for at least another month. I would suggest letting it sit. This is way too big of a beer to be ready this early