How much can I expect gravity to drop during secondary?

[eddiek85]

I've got a dead guy clone that I sampled the other night after fermenting for 3 days. The gravity dropped from 1.065 to 1.019 and the FG should be at 1.015. I sampled a bit of it when checking the gravity and noticed a significant honey flavor which I think is possibly an off flavor caused by ketones. I read that giving it time in secondary can allow some of this flavor to be cleaned up, however, I was wondering how much the gravity would drop during this time.

Should I rack into secondary when 1.015 is reached, or should I rack it before right now at 1.019ish and expect it to drop an additional few points during the secondary?

Thank you for the help!

 

[Iseneye]

I'm an advocate for kegging beer once it is complete and not leaving it on the cake for a long time. However, three days is too short. Don't do secondary. Leave it in primary for another week or so. Also I assume your estimated FG is based on a calculator. Not sure how accurate they are. Once you have the same reading 2 or 3 days in a row it is done regardless of calculated amount.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Iseneye is telling you right.

 

[RM-MN]

I've got a dead guy clone that I sampled the other night after fermenting for 3 days. The gravity dropped from 1.065 to 1.019 and the FG should be at 1.015. I sampled a bit of it when checking the gravity and noticed a significant honey flavor which I think is possibly an off flavor caused by ketones. I read that giving it time in secondary can allow some of this flavor to be cleaned up, however, I was wondering how much the gravity would drop during this time.

Should I rack into secondary when 1.015 is reached, or should I rack it before right now at 1.019ish and expect it to drop an additional few points during the secondary?

Thank you for the help!

Is your secondary vessel a glass carboy? If so, fill it with apple juice and make cider or wine in it. That way you won't be so tempted to use it to the detriment of your beer. Your beer can stay in the primary for at least a couple months without problems. Leaving your beer in the primary with lots of yeast will allow that yeast to clean up the off flavors. Moving it to secondary may cause the yeast to just quit.

 

[eddiek85]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[eadavis80]

Asking for brew advice is just like asking for advice on a golf swing. Everyone is just trying to help and give you their input based on their experiences. The only way to really learn what you trust is through your own personal experiences.

 

[eddiek85]

Asking for brew advice is just like asking for advice on a golf swing. Everyone is just trying to help and give you their input based on their experiences. The only way to really learn what you trust is through your own personal experiences.

Thx man. I deleted the other post about the probrewer because I was paranoid that he was gonna see it lol.

 

[kh54s10]

It sounds like your friend has gone commercial and does not keep up on changing homebrewing trends. There is nothing wrong with what he says. Some of it is commercial and doesn't really apply to home brewing and other is just outdated.

For secondary, if you use one, you might get a bit more clear beer. Current idea is to get to final gravity before you transfer, so you would get no further drop in gravity.

I now only secondary if adding something that will not fit in the primary or for some reason don't want it in there. The other is bulk aging in a carboy for many months.

 

[C-Rider]

I second the idea of leaving it in the primary for at least another week. I usually go 3 weeks sometimes 4 depending on how busy I am. I get really nice clear beer w/o a secondary or cold crash. Don't rush, let the yeast do there thing w/the sugar and then let them clean themselves up. You'll be surprised at how clear you beer will be if you don't rush things.

 

[seabrew8]

I've got a dead guy clone that I sampled the other night after fermenting for 3 days. The gravity dropped from 1.065 to 1.019 and the FG should be at 1.015. I sampled a bit of it when checking the gravity and noticed a significant honey flavor which I think is possibly an off flavor caused by ketones. I read that giving it time in secondary can allow some of this flavor to be cleaned up, however, I was wondering how much the gravity would drop during this time.

Should I rack into secondary when 1.015 is reached, or should I rack it before right now at 1.019ish and expect it to drop an additional few points during the secondary?

Thank you for the help!

Tha majority of folks around homebrew forums don't secondary anymore. I usually wait a week to check my gravity and then again in 2-3 days. If its stable i put it in the fridge or my cool basement to start cold crashing. Personally, all these extended times - 2+ weeks in the primary doesn't add much quality to average gravity beer IMO, it just takes longer. 1-2 weeks is fine.

 

[madscientist451]

Most beers don't need a secondary. The exception would be high ABV
beers or barleywines, adding fruit, wood aging and adding more yeast and "bugs" for sour beers.
You mentioned an "off flavor"; one way to avoid that with ales is to ferment in the low 60's say 63-64F and when its almost done, (but before its totally done) raise the temperature to 68-70F. The yeast activity will increase a little with the temperature increase and the yeast tend to clean up compounds that produce some off flavors. If you don't have temperature control, you should always be monitoring ambient temperature in the vicinity of your fermenter. Note that your
actual fermenting beer will be a little warmer than ambient air temperature.
3 days is pretty fast to go from 1.065 to 1.019, did you notice what the fermenting temperature was?

 

[eddiek85]

Most beers don't need a secondary. The exception would be high ABV
beers or barleywines, adding fruit, wood aging and adding more yeast and "bugs" for sour beers.
You mentioned an "off flavor"; one way to avoid that with ales is to ferment in the low 60's say 63-64F and when its almost done, (but before its totally done) raise the temperature to 68-70F. The yeast activity will increase a little with the temperature increase and the yeast tend to clean up compounds that produce some off flavors. If you don't have temperature control, you should always be monitoring ambient temperature in the vicinity of your fermenter. Note that your
actual fermenting beer will be a little warmer than ambient air temperature.
3 days is pretty fast to go from 1.065 to 1.019, did you notice what the fermenting temperature was?

Hello there. Thanks for the advice. I've raised the temperature on my temperature controller to 69F and will see what happens. I've got a temp controller that uses an STC-1000 and a metal temp probe which I have stuck to the side of my bucket, covered with a thin piece of insulating foam. Initially I was fermenting it at 60F and I am using a brixmeter in addition to an online calculator. I know it'd be hard to say, but how many degrees would the primary stages of fermentation increase and next time should i have the temp lower to make up for this heat?

I should also mention that my brewing system is newly purchased and uses an electric heating element. On brew day I was having difficultly maintaining good temperature and it was a bit lower than I wanted. Perhaps this caused more fermentability to the wort?

 

[bajaedition]

Stay with me a bit here

we will discuss an ale here

first, I usually brew on Sunday and rack out of the primary into a "secondary" after one week. I at this time am not really worried about further fermentation, I just want to rack it off the lees and age the beer a bit.

I go into secondary and put the beer into a "cold closet" at 50 degrees. as I said I am really worried about squeezing 2 04 3 points of gravity reading out of my beer. Instead I am doing a 2 or 3 week aging and allowing stuff to drop out and flavors to mature. My preferred secondary is a corney keg.

I then filter the beer at 1 micron, and then keg it, crashing to 38 degrees and then carbonating the beer before it goes on tap. If I am to bottle I will still do this as I force carbonate my bottles beer.

Because I have found that a secondary does not really up the ABV much, but it does really help improve the flavor, I do not worry that much about how much it drops in secondary.

The heavier the beer, the longer it stays in secondary.

If the total time is 3 weeks, did I need to secondary, probably not, but I am a bit anal and will do it anyway, if it is an Imperial stout and will age several months, it will probably hit a Tertiary vessel after 1 month.

You see, that is my decision and it brings about the best beers I brew, I have tried doing less and I see a huge improvement doing as I do.

Everyone has their own style, Do what makes you comfortable. this is just a hobby

 

[RM-MN]

Hello there. Thanks for the advice. I've raised the temperature on my temperature controller to 69F and will see what happens. I've got a temp controller that uses an STC-1000 and a metal temp probe which I have stuck to the side of my bucket, covered with a thin piece of insulating foam. Initially I was fermenting it at 60F and I am using a brixmeter in addition to an online calculator. I know it'd be hard to say, but how many degrees would the primary stages of fermentation increase and next time should i have the temp lower to make up for this heat?

I should also mention that my brewing system is newly purchased and uses an electric heating element. On brew day I was having difficultly maintaining good temperature and it was a bit lower than I wanted. Perhaps this caused more fermentability to the wort?

With your controller hooked up as you have it your beer will stay at 60 degrees +/- whatever the offset is on the controller. That's the function of the controller, it changes the temperature of the refrigerator or freezer to whatever it needs to keep the beer at the set temperature. If you monitored the inside of the freezer you might find it to be 10 or 20 degrees cooler than the beer temp as it compensates for the yeast activity trying to warm the beer.

You could just take the beer out of the fermentation chamber as the time when it needs to have the temperature controlled has passed. Warmer temps (within reason) will encourage the yeast to break down any intermediate compounds it create and clean up off flavors. My beers go to a 72 degree room after a week at 62.

It will depend on what kind of brewing you are doing whether the temperature matters or not. You don't say if you are extract or all grain. With all grain it mattes and yes it would make a more fermentable wort. With extract it won't matter.