Is my beer refermenting? (pic)

[bamaster]

Hello all,

I've been brewing for a couple years now. This morning I came across something new. This is from an extract kit called Front Porch Pale Ale. Two weeks in primary, then racked into a secondary where it's been sitting for a week.

At first I thought maybe mold, but it kinda looks like it's re-fermenting. It's a little low on the volume, sitting at 4.5 gallons instead of 5 gal. Looking for opinions. Thoughts? Anything to worry about?

Thanks in advance!

 

[chickypad]

May be just off gassing CO2. Looks like a lot of headspace for a secondary, is there a reason you transferred it? If the gravity is stable I'd get that packaged. If it's infected then the gravity may still be dropping so you have to be careful of bombs. I would not have used a secondary for a pale ale, you're just risking oxidation and infection.

 

[jpakstis]

Did that happen pretty close in time to you racking it to secondary? When I used to secondary, there would be a little bit of yeast activity, similar to your photo, post-racking. It would die down pretty quickly. I can't remember why it happened (maybe it re-awakened the yeast a little bit), but its fairly common.

Like chickypad said, secondary is probably unnecessary for future reference. And whatever mini fermentation going on right now won't affect bottling or kegging as soon as you can.

 

[bamaster]

I racked it out of habit, I suppose. It's in a Big Mouth Bubbler, which has a lot of headroom to begin with. Probably not the best secondary fermenter. It's 6.5 gallons vessel and only 4.5 gallons of beer, but it smells ok. I did notice that my airlock was dry, too. Couldn't have been but a few days, but still.

I haven't been watching it every day, so I don't know how soon it started doing this after racking. I'll give it a couple more days to see if it subsides. But I agree, bottle it and give it a go.

Thanks for your feedback, friends.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I'm sure it will turn out well!

 

[flars]

Take a specific gravity reading and another if five days. What was the OG? Did you take a SG reading before racking? SG numbers will help determine if there may be a problem.

 

[PADave]

I'd get it bottled ASAP and then drink it as soon as it is ready. With the racking to secondary and large headspace I'd bet you got some nice oxidation going on. Won't last long in the bottle.