Did I screw up and rack to secondary too early??

[FirefightingBrewer]

So I have about 9 partial mash batches down and I have yet to have this issue.

So I brewed a red 8 days ago and racked to the secondary, like I have done my previous 8 brews, and then took a gravity reading. Problem is, gravity is way off or should be slightly lower at a minimum. OG was 1.052 and I am sitting at 1.018...and I may be a little kind with that, probably more like 1.020. So we know I need more time, will a couple weeks in the secondary bring that down, or should I pitch another pack of WYEAST?

I have been fortunate in the past to have hit my target FG when racked to the secondary, this is the first one that has been off, unfortunately I took the reading during the transfer and it was too late to turn back around.

I was going to leave it in the secondary for two weeks but I am not sure time is going to be enough to bring it down, might need some help? what are your thoughts?

FYI: fermentation temps are in the high 60's

 

[smagee]

More time in secondary should bring it down a bit. Take another reading after a week and see if it's progressed any. 9 days sounds a bit early to me, but I typically go at least 21 days before racking to secondary (when I secondary at all, that is). I'd suggest going forward with at least a two-week minimum for future batches, but the best way will be to draw hydro samples to ensure that fermentation's finished up prior to racking.

 

[Jsamp]

Dont rack to secondary until primary fermentation is complete. Secondary isnt meant for pimary fermentation but for clearing/aging/dry hopping/oak chips/vanilla/etc.

 

[waldoar15]

Gravity reading before transferring, not after There's pretty much no reason to be pulling your beer off of the yeast in 8 days. Buy another primary or two if you're brewing that often.

 

[user 73497]

I don't agree that 8 days is necessarily too soon for an ale. That you pitched an ale and it only attenuated at best 65% after 8 days is an issue. -I probably would have left it in primary, maybe swirling to rouse the yeast.

I usually leave my ales in primary for 2 weeks (primarily because the weekends only come once a week). The Dunkle I pitched yesterday (Sunday), I plan to bottle on Saturday. I will take a gravity reading and make sure it fully attenuated first though - otherwise, I'll leave it alone. I'll let it condition in the bottle a few more weeks and it should be good to go for Oktoberfest.

Is it possible one or the other measure was off (or taken at a different temp?). Did you taste it; and if so, was it too sweet?

As you can see there is a lot of variation to how long to leave in primary/whether to secondary etc.... take them for what they are, opinions. -The only "science" part that has a right or wrong is whether the attenuation is normal for that yeast -and that there is possibly a lot of sugar left behind.

Good Luck!

Cheers, Werbi

 

[FirefightingBrewer]

Yeah now I know not to rack to secondary before taking my gravity reading. Usually I do, however yesterday I was bottling one, and while I was pulling from the secondary I was just thinking ...hey why not just take my beer from the primary and throw it in so I can free up the primary. For those that suggested getting another primary...consider it done.

The wort did not taste sweet by the way, in-fact it actually tasted pretty good...I was surprised with that to be honest.

Let me also add something else here that may have caused this or contributed to it. I mashed at a much higher temp... I screwed up my strike calculation and discounted the insulation value of my pot. I was at 160 degrees after stirring the daylights out of it, put the lid on and after an hour I was sitting at 156 degrees. Could the higher bash temps be part of the problem?

So nobody thinks I should re-pitch some Wyeast in my secondary? The consensus appears to wait a week and take a reading again? If waiting is the plan, what happens if its still hovering at 1.020 after a week?

Thanks for helping out with my stupididty.

 

[Aschecte]

the short answer is yes mashing at higher temps will create a more dextrinous less fermentable wort. Still fermentable but just not as much as per se 150-152 etc. contrled temps are crucial with all grain as is water volumes.

 

[Revvy]

Gravity reading before transferring, not after There's pretty much no reason to be pulling your beer off of the yeast in 8 days. Buy another primary or two if you're brewing that often.

This is the answer. The purpose of a gravity reading, is to tell you whether or not you should do something, like rack or bottle.

 

[samc]

So nobody thinks I should re-pitch some Wyeast in my secondary? The consensus appears to wait a week and take a reading again? If waiting is the plan, what happens if its still hovering at 1.020 after a week?

I'd wait 2 weeks and not even consider adding more yeast. If it is still 1.020, carb drink and enjoy.

 

[OLDBREW]

you never mentioned what yeast strain you are using. some yeasts are done fermenting in 4 days, some 3 weeks

Racking fermenting wort to the secondary while the fermentation isn't complete, is not a problem. The weak or dead yeast cells fall out of the solution first when fermentaion is active. The healthy active yeast are still in the solution working their magic.
Racking to the secondary will get your brew off the decaying trub and yeast.
As long as you didn't crash cool the wort before transfering it to the secondary, you'll be fine.

Lager brewers finish the fermentation in the secondarys with no problems. Anyone telling you that you should never transfer a brew to the secondary after only 8 days, is giving you some false information.

Next time you over shoot your target temp by that much, take a small amount of filtered cold water and stir it in the mash to get the temperature down faster. It doesn't take much cold water so small amounts and stir.

 

[FirefightingBrewer]

For those that asked, I was using WYeast 2007 Pilsen Lager... As I type this, the "lager" yeast just jumped out on me. Never thought to lager this, nor do I have any capability to do so at this point. The lager yeast the issue? The stupidity of me continues to build..lol

 

[smagee]

Lager yeast could be part of the issue, but really your root cause will be the high mash temperature. As was mentioned, mashing that high will result in a higher percentage of non-fermentable sugars in the final beer. Consequently, your FG will generally be a few points higher than you would otherwise expect--these points will increase as your mash temperature does.

From as high as you mashed, somewhere between 4-8 points off sounds about reasonable. Since I'd expect a beer with a OG of 1.052 to have an expected FG of somewhere in the vicinity of 1.012-1.018 (depending on style), your current level seems right for a batch where the mash temp spiked too high. Adding more yeast won't help; the problem is that the sugars present at this point can't be consumed by *any* yeast (wild yeasts and 3711 aside). Which is why I suggest waiting at least a week or so and see if your reading has budged at all. If not, chalk this one up to experience and bottle away. I'm relatively sure it'll still be good beer .

 

[rodisian]

This happened to me on a recent batch as well, an American Brown Ale: 1.055 down to 1.020 with a fresh pack of US05 (partial mash, so I don't believe it was mash temp issue) . I did a variety of things to try to get it down: swirled the primary a couple times each day, raised the temperature, sanitized a spoon and physically (gently) stirred up the yeast cake, then even transferred to a secondary with a small amount of wort to try to restart things (and build a CO2 as it didn't fill up the better bottle). I was going to pitch more yeast, but I finally just figured RDWHAB.

So, finally, after barely reaching 1.018 two weeks later, I bottled it. Three weeks later, shared a few bottles with friends, and everyone agreed it's the best beer I've made yet.