Fermentation Re-Active?

[tedski]

I've had my beer in secondary for 1 week now. It spent one week in primary. There was a very short, very active fermentation on the first day (total of about 10 hours). When I racked it over to secondary, it began to clear, you could see the yeast flocculating and gathering at the bottom. Each day, the top of the beer would clear more and more. Today, I went down to take a peak at the carboy and the whole thing is back to cloudy and there's all kinds of bubbles on the surface. Not quite krausen. It looks almost like a beer with a very poor head in a glass. There is no constant activity in the airlock, but you can see the pressure inside the carboy has definitely spiked.

Temps have all been steady between 68 and 72 the entire time. The only climate changes have been relative humidity, but I don't think that would affect the beer since its inside a carboy.

I haven't yet taken a gravity reading because I just don't think I should disturb it yet. Its still got another week or two in the secondary, so I see no reason to open it up. Reason for my post... has anyone seen a fermentation become active again after 2 weeks of no activity?

 

[DutchK9]

It will be okay. Sometimes when the beer is transferred to the secondary it will wake the yeast back up and it will start cleaning the rest of the sugar in the secondary. This can also happen by swirling a primary that seems stuck. Give the secondary a couple weeks to clear and check with your hydrometer. You should be good to go.

 

[tedski]

Yea, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm not going to bother taking the gravity yet because I want it to clear down before I touch it. I was just surprised to see it take a week to stir up and start cleaning up. It was halfway cleared down already. *shrug*

 

[tedski]

Today, there's krausen forming again. No constant activity in the airlock. It definitely seems like fermentation restarted after 14 days of inactivity.

 

[DutchK9]

The only way to really tell is by gravity readings with a hydrometer. If you get the same readings after several days, then you should be done. I generally keep my beer in the primary for 10 days on a beer that starts fermenting fast, and 14 days on a beer that takes several days to start good fermentation, and then put them in the secondary for another 14 days. The gravity readings from the primary and secondary should be the same at that point. I then bottle or keg and let it sit for a month before I touch it. The longer you wait, the better it will taste.

 

[tedski]

Agreed on the waiting part. That's why I'm not going to bother taking gravity readings just yet. I have no other reason to open it up yet, so why risk the contamination, right?

But, here's the thing... this thing shot active on me today. I've got about 3/4" of krausen and the airlock is active again. There's a bubble every 15 seconds or so.

After doing as much research as I could, I read that a late, sudden fermentation like this is usually linked to infection. Anyone heard that before?

I smelled the airlock and it smells nothing other than hoppy beer... which it should. It looks healthy, just looks like fermentation on the first day or two.

 

[Bob]

RDWHAHB.



If it smells good, it probably is good. If it starts to smell like a$s, it might be infected.

Wait until the foam drops and take a gravity. Taste the sample.

Aside: This is why I put the carboy in a cool, dark place; I forget about it until I need it.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[DutchK9]

Relax and don't dump it!
Check Revvy's post on why you don't dump a beer.

 

[tedski]

dump?! who said anything about dump?!?!

I'm not even touching it. Let it do its thing for a few more weeks. I have other brews to worry about.

Worst case scenario: This thing aint done by the time I need the carboy and I'm forced to buy another carboy. Well, oh shucks...