First boil kit and I've got questions

[DrtDoctor]

Ok, I'm a wine maker who dabbles in beer making as my wife likes the beer. I know that's backwards but that's the way it it. She has been Very happy with the Barron's no-boil kits. Since Wine expert discontinued the Baron's kits, I decided to try my first Brewer's Best kit (Irish Stout). Things were going great except it got cold in my basement, it is winter, and the air temp. dropped to about 60. This was day 2 just as the fermentation started up. So I put on my brewers belt and fermentation proceeded well.

I had to go out of town. Things warmed up while I was out of town. When I returned the temp on the my stick-on thermometer read 76 F. This was exactly one week after starting the kit. Air temp. was 70 F. There was still positive pressure in the sealed primary but it wasn't bubbling.

Next evening I racked to secondary. As this was my first five gallon kit, I trusted the five gallon mark on the side of my primary. Well, that was a little short. The rack only got me to the shoulder of the 5 gallon carboy.

Now, their seems to be NO activity in the carboy. No positive pressure, no active bubbling plus all this head space. It's only been a day. I'm thinking I should prime it and bottle it. I'll let it cure in the bottle. My big question is should I be concerned about the lack of activity and should I bottle it right away? Any comments?

Thanks in advance,

DrtDoctor

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

First, little to no fermentation actually occurs after you rack to secondary if fermentation is complete. Next, did you take a hydrometer reading? if you don't have a hydro get one. I think that you should be alright sounds like it completed... You will always always ALWAYS lose volume from primary to secondary because that little cake at the bottom has a bunch of crap in it... when you remove the lighter liquid you happen to have less than 5 gallons. RDWHAHB