I'm brewing an amber ale...it's my first brew. Had it in the primary for a week, then transferred it to the secondary (glass carboy). After a few days i started to see a few bubbles form. Very small...looked like CO2 bubbles maybe. It's been in the secondary for about 10 days and how there are a lot of bubbles. Doesnt seem to be bacteria forming or anything...almost like reminence of the beer head after you pour it and let it fizzle away. Is this normal?
Froth on top of secondary? Normal?
- Thread starter tommybrew
- Start date
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Did you take hydrometer readings before racking to see if fermentation was complete? If you didn't and just arbitrarily racked, more than likely fermentation was not complete yet, and you interrupted fermentation when you moved the beer. Because of that the yeast is re-krausening the beer so it can attempt to finish the job. It's quite common in first time brewer's batches who don't wait til fermentation is complete.
The thing about moving your beer so soon, is that if you've experienced a 72 hour lag phase with your yeast, then in truth your beer's only been fermenting for 3-4 days when you move it. Often not quite enough time for the yeast to do their job completely.
It should be fine, but in the future don't rack the beer based on a calender, but on 2 consequtive hydrometer readings, three days apart. And I recommend folks don't even take their first reading til day 12, and the second on day 14. It gives the yeast plenty of time to finish, and clean up after itself the byproducts of fermentation that leads to off flavors.
The thing about moving your beer so soon, is that if you've experienced a 72 hour lag phase with your yeast, then in truth your beer's only been fermenting for 3-4 days when you move it. Often not quite enough time for the yeast to do their job completely.
It should be fine, but in the future don't rack the beer based on a calender, but on 2 consequtive hydrometer readings, three days apart. And I recommend folks don't even take their first reading til day 12, and the second on day 14. It gives the yeast plenty of time to finish, and clean up after itself the byproducts of fermentation that leads to off flavors.
I had the same SG of 1.012 for 3 consecutive days before I racked it so I thought it was alright. It had a thick layer of krausen really quick and that all went away so i started taking hydrometer readings and they were all consistent. Ill guess ill just wait longer next time.
Thanks
Thanks
You might have just got the yeast all up and bothered when you racked it. You may have a few degrees more of a drop in gravity when this is over.
Charlie_in_TX
Member
Froth in the secondary is normal. I am not an old timer but I have been doing this for a little while. I have racked at 3 days, when I needed the primary for the next batch. I have stayed in the primary for a month. And many between. I don't see a magic move by date.
I do know the last glass of beer from the keg is almost always better than the first.
I do know the last glass of beer from the keg is almost always better than the first.
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