Do I need to use a Secondary Fermentation for this?

[hercher]

I have a Scottish Ale in primary now since 2/6/16. OG was 1.072, and it is now down to just under 1.020. Last weekend, it was at 1.022, so I'm not sure that fermentation is completely finished. Because the specific gravity continues to drop, this isn't a stuck gravity.

Normally, I don't bother with secondary fermenters, and rack straight to the keg after two weeks. But in this case, I think I'm going to need to wait at least another week. I don't know that the gravity is going to fall too much farther, as I was aiming for a fairly sweet finish.

Is there some point at which I need to rack this to another vessel to get it off the trub?

My recipe is as follows.

2-row - 9 lbs
Crystal 80 - 2 lbs
Munich 10L - 1 lb
Smoked malt - 0.5 lbs
Roast Barley - 2 oz

UK Golding 5.9% - 1 oz 1.5 hours boil
Tettnant 6.0% - 1 oz 20 minute boil

Mash temp 155

Roasted barley added at vorlauf, as I didn't want any burnt flavors, but did want some of the color.

Boil time 1.5 hours.

Pitched a 2 qt starter of White Labs British Ale Yeast at high Kraeusen.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[theseeker4]

I have a Scottish Ale in primary now since 2/6/16. OG was 1.072, and it is now down to just under 1.020. Last weekend, it was at 1.022, so I'm not sure that fermentation is completely finished. Because the specific gravity continues to drop, this isn't a stuck gravity.

Normally, I don't bother with secondary fermenters, and rack straight to the keg after two weeks. But in this case, I think I'm going to need to wait at least another week. I don't know that the gravity is going to fall too much farther, as I was aiming for a fairly sweet finish.

Is there some point at which I need to rack this to another vessel to get it off the trub?

My recipe is as follows.

2-row - 9 lbs
Crystal 80 - 2 lbs
Munich 10L - 1 lb
Smoked malt - 0.5 lbs
Roast Barley - 2 oz

UK Golding 5.9% - 1 oz 1.5 hours boil
Tettnant 6.0% - 1 oz 20 minute boil

Mash temp 155

Roasted barley added at vorlauf, as I didn't want any burnt flavors, but did want some of the color.

Boil time 1.5 hours.

Pitched a 2 qt starter of White Labs British Ale Yeast at high Kraeusen.

Thanks for any suggestions.

You can go well over a month in primary fermentor without any off flavors. If you don't plan on a several-months long aging in secondary, racking it for a week would not help, and might hurt, the beer. I would leave it another couple weeks and then move to keg.

 

[JBOGAN]

I think you should be okay with letting it go another week. I doubt that it will drop too much further in that time frame, even if you ended up at 1.016 it would probably still have enough residual sweetness.

 

[porterpounder]

You can let it go for another week or two, or transfer to the keg and let it sit warm. Consider it a closed secondary fermenter.

 

[titansvol]

I primary everything for 3 weeks or more. You should be ok leaving it in primary for another week

 

[hercher]

You can let it go for another week or two, or transfer to the keg and let it sit warm. Consider it a closed secondary fermenter.

I was thinking about maybe moving it to a keg now, and letting it naturally carbonate. I'll take another reading on Sunday and see where we are at.

 

[porterpounder]

I was thinking about maybe moving it to a keg now, and letting it naturally carbonate. I'll take another reading on Sunday and see where we are at.

That sounds just crazy enough to work! Two words: spunding valve

 

[hercher]

That sounds just crazy enough to work! Two words: spunding valve

A what?

 

[porterpounder]

http://byo.com/color/item/397-build-your-own-spunding-valve-to-carbonate-in-the-keg

 

[oceanic_brew]

That's an awesome idea. I rarely secondary but I will definitely try this some time.

 

[hercher]

This is a cool idea. I'm getting slightly off-topic, but if you need to do a diacetyl rest, which is usually after fermentation is complete, is it still applicable to use this?

 

[kombat]

The article describes targeting 14 psi for the pressure in the keg, but he also describes attaching the valve when the beer is almost finished primary fermentation. He recommends keeping the beer at normal fermentation temperatures to allow it to complete. He says that this will produce perfectly-carbonated beer.

But room-temperature beer at 14 psi is considerably under-carbed according to the carbonation chart we've all seen. Shouldn't he be targeting a higher PSI if carbonating at room temperature?