First Time doing a Partial Mash & Some help would be great!

[76johnyb]

I brewed my first partial mash beer, a chocolate raspberry stout. I have brewed a few times before, but this is the first time I went and bought the grains without the kit.

Brewing went well and the first week in the fermenter went as expected. After a week in the primary fermenter the recipe called for the a transfer into a secondary fermenter. After transferring to the secondary fermenter, I have noticed that there has not been a lot of activity in regards to the airlock bubbling.

I was not sure when transferring from the primary to the secondary if I need to transfer the stuff at the bottom of the primary fermenter as well. Should I have done so?

I am scheduled to bottle this Saturday and I am wondering if I need to add more yeast or not.

Also, the recipe that I got was from Brew Toad dot com. There was no info on priming sugar for bottling. Since it did not mention it, does that mean that I do not need to use it? If I do, any idea on how much I would need.

Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Corey_SS]

Generally if you're transferring to a secondary you don't want all that trub at the bottom. If you're using fruit then doing a secondary makes sense, but honestly if you're not adding anything else I wouldn't bother with a secondary.

You shouldn't need to add more yeast for bottling. There should be enough yeast floating in your beer to get the job done. You will definitely want priming sugar though, 3/4 cup sugar in 2 cups of water is pretty standard.

Chocolate and fruit are usually a pretty good combo. Good luck.

 

[freisste]

To add to Corey's comments:

You will not see much (if any) bubbling in secondary because in spite of the name, there should be no fermentation (unless you add sugar such as fruit).

You definitely need priming sugar. The yeast in your beer have consumed all of the available sugar. When you add a little more (priming sugar) the yeast eat it and release carbon dioxide which pressurized your bottles. This is the one place I will disagree with Corey

- don't add sugar by volume if you can help it. Add by weight. Priming sugar calculators are available online, but a simple rule of thumb is 0.75-1.0oz/gallon.