Holiday Ale in Secondary, John Bull Kit in primary.

[xellios]

So today I racked my my holiday ale to the secondary. I think I'm going to end up with about 4.5 gallons instead of 5 with this one. I had to switch to a blowoff on day 2 and I realized that I put the tube too far into the bucket so I lost some brew.

The holiday ale had an OG of 1.076 and now it is at 1.021. Its a little over the final gravity, but the recipe said that it could be racked now.

Here it is.

I also started the second batch which is a John Bull Master Class Bavarian Lager. I didn't add anything to it because the lady at the home brew shop said I wouldn't need to. Heres hoping she was right and it turns out nice. It certainly looks nice.

Here they are side by side:

 

[PseudoChef]

Just because "the recipe said it could be racked" does not mean it can be racked. You should always make sure your fermentation is complete before moving your beer to a clearing vessel.

 

[xellios]

Just because "the recipe said it could be racked" does not mean it can be racked. You should always make sure your fermentation is complete before moving your beer to a clearing vessel.

Yeah, you are probably right. This was my first brew, so I was just going by the recipe. Heres what it said verbatim.

When bubbling has stopped, remove the lid, sanitize a hydrometer and take the Final Gravity (F.G.) reading. Write down this number for future reference. If this reading matches the F.G. reading specified, go to step H. If the reading is higher than the reading specified for your recipe, place the lid back onto the fermenter and allow fermentation to continue for another few days.

OPTIONAL - a process called secondary (or two stage) fermentation may be used at this point to improve beer clarity.

Will the gravity not fall anymore now that I've racked it? Hopefully it will end up ok. I did do a taste test after testing the gravity and it seems to be coming along nicely.

 

[PseudoChef]

It may. Racking usually stirs yeast back into suspension, which may make fermentation active again.

I don't follow the 1 week primary, 2 week secondary, etc, so I take my first gravity measurement during primary at around 2 weeks, then monitor every day after that. When it's consistent for 3 days (no change), then it's most likely safe to rack.

 

[Liquidsandwich]

yea I learned the holiday ale needed a blow off tube the hard way!! looked like someone threwup on my cealing. It smells good though hopfully it wasn't harmed to much.