Hi HBT from NC

[clavalla]

The wife got me a starting beer kit for Christmas. I went and got some extra things and an extract kit from the local (tiny) homebrew store. I went with the belgian tripel from brewers best to start with. I brewed first and read the forums after so I made a lot of noob mistakes...hopefully the fruits of it being my own beer will make it so I don't notice LOL.

The kit said stay in primary 4-6 days but to do it before fermentation ends and then go to secondary, my OG was around 1.082 I guess. (BTW do they make bigger hydrometers to make reading this easier?!?!? My best guess is to get it within a half thousandth..dont know if I could tell the difference between 1.082 and 1.085)

So I went to secondary at 4 days for fear of fermentation ending like the instructions said (way early after reading all the posts of sitting on primary for weeks and that it helps big beers *sigh*) the SG was around 1.032 I would guess when it went in the secondary. The siphon kept getting bubbles and stopping so I suck started it *rolls eyes*..I know..I know...

SOOO...I guess the plan its to let it double down in there for a couple weeks and do a test gravity pull a week into it to make sure i didn't stall the yeast. Hopefully this comes out as a tasty beer still, I think I will just be a lot more patient on the next one.

Glad to be here, just a few hours of reading would have saved me a lot of worry on this first brew!!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group.

It is not a good idea to rack a beer to secondary until you've hit final gravity. Moving the beer off the bulk of the yeast can cause a stuck fermentation, and too sweet a beer. Secondary is really unnecessary in many brewer's opinions, it is more of a clearing stage (unless you're lagering, adding fruite, etc.). I typically leave my brews in primary for 3+ weeks, check FG, then bottle. Try an autosiphon, way easier.