Hi Everyone! Brewed 1st Batch on Sunday!

[obie]

Hello Everyone! Brewed my first batch on Sunday while the Patriots were currently getting crushed. I made a 5gal batch of White Christmas Ale. I took this photo at 8pm yesterday (24hrs after adding yeast) and the fermentor was quite active. Today (almost 48hrs later) I noticed less bubbles and less activity in the fermentor. When should I pour into the secondary fermentor?

 

[PoorInRain]

If it is for Christmas this year, I would not move it. What yeast did you pitch?

 

[obie]

WB06 dry yeast

 

[aStoutObserver]

Congrats on your first brew. You are now hooked. You've got a good looking krausen there. I'd look into installing a a blowoff for most of your beers so that you don't end up with a mess. (Even though this one looks pretty good for not needing one)

 

[Stocktonbrew]

Good job! It looks good. I tend to leave my beers in primary untill they are done fermenting. I don't know if you are going to dry hop or add additional ingredients or not. If you are, rack after primary slows down (7-10 days). If you are not adding anything else to it, I would leave it alone till its done. Its not going to hurt anything and less chance of infection.

 

[thadass]

I agree with not putting this in secondary; it's not necessary and could just up the chance of problem (or just extent the time to tasty beer). I'd take a gravity reading this weekend and next Wednesday or so. If they're the same, I'd prep for bottling the weekend after that. If the Wednesday reading is lower, check again that following weekend. If that's the same as the Wed reading, feel free to bottle.

At that point (if you are aiming for Xmas drinking here) keep the bottles ~70F until 3 or 4 days prior to serving (2 weeks minimum). Then for the 3 or 4 days prior to serving, keep them in the fridge or someplace cold to condition a little more.

More time might improve it more. This is just assuming you're hoping for some holiday drinks . Feel free to read around on the forum for more info. Plenty of the stickies in different categories like bottling/kegging will probably help a lot as well.

 

[PoorInRain]

I only use a secondary fermenter when I am using yeasts that take over a month to ferment. Belgian yeasts and yeasts in big beers like barley wines need more time to finish fermentation. Beers like that are benefitted by being racked off of the dead yeast cells that fall to the bottom of carboy. It takes a month or more of sitting on dead yeast cells before beer will take on any off flavors, so if I am not fermenting the beer for longer than a month or dry-hopping, I don't use a secondary fermenter. I would bottle your beer on December 3rd straight from the primary fermenter to the bottling bucket. You're still cutting it close by Christmas.

 

[obie]

Here she is 47hrs later,



Did not plan on dry hopping or adding anymore ingredients

 

[PoorInRain]

Awesome job man. The sky is the limit now. Here is a Tart Of Darkness clone from a recipe found on HBT. I didn't pitch the yeast until 2:00am last night.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group.

The Broncos stunk up that field, didn't they.