Early Racking

[PatsFan1985]

Hi everyone! I have a blueberry wheat that's in the primary and perking about once a minute. I was hoping to rack it even though it's still going at a visible rate. Are there any drawbacks to doing this? I would think that it might help because I'll get a nice CO2 cushion to prevent oxidizing my beer.

 

[Revvy]

Why would you want to remove a beer from it's yeast when it is still fermenting????

That's asking for a stuck fermentation.

There is very little reason to rack a beer these days any way, and if you do, you should wait til fermentation is complete. And you know that from 2 consequetive HYDROMETER readings spaced over three day. I recommend that new brewers don't even take their first reading til at least day 10, I usually do day 12.

But most of us leave our beer in primary for a month, then bottle, skipping secondary altogether.

 

[PatsFan1985]

That's asking for a stuck fermentation.

Good point, I'm a little disappointed I overlook that. My main drive for wanting to rack it was to see if the green from the hop pellets settled out. I did a mash with some blueberries and had a wonderful purple color to the wort until the pellets. In retrospect I should have used whole hops. But I suppose I should be patient, wait, and RDWHAHB.

 

[malkore]

Not to mention your airlock isn't really any indication of fermentation. As Revvy stated, the hydrometer readings mean something. The airlock just means CO2 was released. Beer holds a ton of trapped CO2 for weeks after primary is completely finished.

the green from the pellets will drop out of solution in the primary as well as secondary.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've done several Speed Brew's where they recommend racking on day 3. I ended up with diacetyl in the first one I did. You need to allow the yeast to clean up after fermentation before racking.

I had to bring it back up to room temp and added more yeast, but it cleared up nicely in about 4 days.

Now I don't rush them anymore.