Little to excited; Extended primary?

[user 302314]

So, in a moment of eagerness, I started a batch on Monday and pitched on Tuesday (july 5th).. forgetting entirely that I'm going away next week during the window I would rack to a secondary. Currently it's sitting in a plastic bucket. If it were in a fermonster/carboy or similar I wouldn't be as concerned letting it sit on the yeast for an extra 3/4 days. However, it's in the bucket and it make me worry I may ruin it.

Should I rack from my bucket to a secondary after only 5 days, or will I be safe to wait until the Friday I return, (July 15)?

I know there's debate on primary/secondary but my concern is really the bucket, I don't like the idea of it sitting for to long on there.

Thanks all!

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I think your beer will be fine, I have a beer in a bucket that will be kegged when I get home this weekend,it will have spent 3 weeks in there by then.
This has happened before and the beer has been just fine every time.

 

[Miraculix]

I've had dumpers in similar situations. It really depends on the bucket. The more leaky, the more you want to avoid it.

 

[user 302314]

I've had dumpers in similar situations. It really depends on the bucket. The more leaky, the more you want to avoid it.

I don't have an air lock lid, so it's just sitting on top, not snapped down so pressure can escape.. it's making me a little paranoid.

 

[user 302314]

I think your beer will be fine, I have a beer in a bucket that will be kegged when I get home this weekend,it will have spent 3 weeks in there by then.
This has happened before and the beer has been just fine every time.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate hearing success stories here.

 

[Miraculix]

I don't have an air lock lid, so it's just sitting on top, not snapped down so pressure can escape.. it's making me a little paranoid.

I'd rack it together with some sugar in a closed vessel with an air lock, to scavenge all possible oxygen.

 

[user 302314]

I'd rack it together with some sugar in a closed vessel with an air lock, to scavenge all possible oxygen.

Like with some corn sugar or something?

 

[Miraculix]

Like with some corn sugar or something?

Yes, just a little bit of extra fermentables, corn sugar, table sugar, doesn't matter. Just a little something to give the yeast the possibility to scavenge the oxygen that you might have introduced during the transfer.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Yeah in that case, with a loosely fitted lid and no airlock I would be a little worried. My line of thinking has been that 3 weeks in a plastic bucket fermenter has been fine since those time I have had to leave the beer an extra week before packaging there has still been positive pressure in the bucket, that may not be the case in your situation.

 

[user 302314]

Yeah in that case, with a loosely fitted lid and no airlock I would be a little worried. My line of thinking has been that 3 weeks in a plastic bucket fermenter has been fine since those time I have had to leave the beer an extra week before packaging there has still been positive pressure in the bucket, that may not be the case in your situation.

Exactly, I think I may rack to a carboy with a little corn surgar and air lock it.
Typically, when I rack, I avoid the sediment.. in this case, should I just grab everything?

 

[hottpeper13]

Since you're taking the lid off, why not take a hydro sample for SG and a taste. If it's close to end fermentation , then add some sugar,if not don't. The beer transferred will have the yeast cells that are the attenuaters,so it will clean up, unless it's Kveik,they drop out fast.

 

[user 302314]

Since you're taking the lid off, why not take a hydro sample for SG and a taste. If it's close to end fermentation , then add some sugar,if not don't. The beer transferred will have the yeast cells that are the attenuaters,so it will clean up, unless it's Kveik,they drop out fast.

it's just a simple batch. 2 grain, 1 hop and yeast. I'm still learning the ingredients
I will take a reading and compare against the recipe numbers and go from there.
Thanks for the advice all.

 

[GirthySquirt]

Personally I would not worry about it, as long as the bucket is sealed up with an airlock! 10 days on the original yeast cake is not very long, and may actually help with clearing up some of the off flavors. Just my two cents...

 

[user 302314]

Personally I would not worry about it, as long as the bucket is sealed up with an airlock! 10 days on the original yeast cake is not very long, and may actually help with clearing up some of the off flavors. Just my two cents...

that's the reason for the question, it's not sealed up with an air lock, just sitting on top. I don't have a bucket lid with an air lock. My local supplier didn't have one when I bought it.

 

[GirthySquirt]

that's the reason for the question, it's not sealed up with an air lock, just sitting on top. I don't have a bucket lid with an air lock. My local supplier didn't have one when I bought it.

When you say "just sitting on top", what exactly is sitting on top? Do you mean the lid to the bucket is resting on top of the bucket without actually being sealed? Assuming the answer to my question is yes, I would just pop the lid down and seal it if it is one of those simple plastic lip ones without any kind of o-ring or airlock that still seals. That way you have somewhat of a seal with some ability to maintain the CO2 blanket inside while still having some ability for gas to escape as fermentation continues.

As an aside, you may have seen some traditional German beers ferment with no lid at all in an open vessel container and come out just fine (open fermentation); a traditional hefeweizen comes to mind. I presume if your beer is hopped and your yeast is fermenting away healthily that you would have enough microbial resistance to be just fine with no lid at all, but it probably depends on the beer style.

Are you more concerned that the yeast cake will cause problems in the not totally sealed container in this amount of time or more worried about an unwanted infection?

 

[user 302314]

When you say "just sitting on top", what exactly is sitting on top? Do you mean the lid to the bucket is resting on top of the bucket without actually being sealed? Assuming the answer to my question is yes, I would just pop the lid down and seal it if it is one of those simple plastic lip ones without any kind of o-ring or airlock that still seals. That way you have somewhat of a seal with some ability to maintain the CO2 blanket inside while still having some ability for gas to escape as fermentation continues.

As an aside, you may have seen some traditional German beers ferment with no lid at all in an open vessel container and come out just fine (open fermentation); a traditional hefeweizen comes to mind. I presume if your beer is hopped and your yeast is fermenting away healthily that you would have enough microbial resistance to be just fine with no lid at all, but it probably depends on the beer style.

Are you more concerned that the yeast cake will cause problems in the not totally sealed container in this amount of time or more worried about an unwanted infection?

Just sitting on top, meaning the lid is in place on top of the bucket, just not snapped down.
I’m worried about unwanted infection. And if I seal my lid down. (One with a rubber gasket for air tight seal) that I may end up with a mess when I return. The fermentation seems to be coming along nicely but has seemed to slow in the last 24-36 hours. It’s only a half batch, could the yeast have already done it’s job? (4 days on)

 

[GirthySquirt]

Just sitting on top, meaning the lid is in place on top of the bucket, just not snapped down.
I’m worried about unwanted infection. And if I seal my lid down. (One with a rubber gasket for air tight seal) that I may end up with a mess when I return. The fermentation seems to be coming along nicely but has seemed to slow in the last 24-36 hours. It’s only a half batch, could the yeast have already done it’s job? (4 days on)

I still say just leave it. It's probably mostly done with the primary active fermentation but there's a lot of "work" left for the yeast to do to consume/convert the undesirable compounds they created during fermentation that lead to off flavors; I find leaving the yeast undisturbed for about two weeks really helps clean the beer up compared to one one week in, at least for many standard ale yeast strains.

If your fermentation went really great and it's well hopped (with lots of alpha-acids to kill bacteria) I would not worry about infection so much. Someone on the forums once said the most overlooked (and most impactful) way to combat infection is not sanitation practice - it is the health of your yeast - I think this is awesome advice.

If you have a good health yeast fermentation you do four things: 1. Remove all oxygen from solution (aerobic microbes can not survive), 2. Lower the pH to range that many other microbes can not survive, 3. create enough alcohol content that many microbes can not survive, 4. consume all the "food and nutrients" that other organisms would otherwise use themselves to survive and reproduce. Couple this with good sanitization and alpha-acids from the hops and you have a great recipe for beer to naturally fight off unwanted microbes from taking grip!

I would say your weak point right now is probably oxygen contamination/sanitation. Aerobic bacteria need oxygen to survive, so if you don't have a closed vessel you risk that class of microbes to a higher degree. That being said it seems like if you leave the bucket undisturbed you might not even have oxygen getting back into the beer since the CO2 produced during fermentation can "blanket" the liquid beer fluid surface since it is more dense and act as a gas layer that prevents too much oxygen from getting back in.

All this to say still probably don't do anything and I would still just leave it as in. Really the less you take the lid off the better. You could probably marginally improve your chances of no infection by sealing the lid and jerry-rigging some kind of air lock, but it's probably not necessary. Racking to secondary you have all the same problems - you expose the beer to a lot of air and potential microbes that could be airborne and on the new surfaces, potentially get a lot of oxygen back into the solution, and now risk infection in a totally new way. What yeast did you use - if its one known for a really strong fermentation I would be extra-not-worried

 

[user 302314]

I still say just leave it. It's probably mostly done with the primary active fermentation but there's a lot of "work" left for the yeast to do to consume/convert the undesirable compounds they created during fermentation that lead to off flavors; I find leaving the yeast undisturbed for about two weeks really helps clean the beer up compared to one one week in, at least for many standard ale yeast strains.

If your fermentation went really great and it's well hopped (with lots of alpha-acids to kill bacteria) I would not worry about infection so much. Someone on the forums once said the most overlooked (and most impactful) way to combat infection is not sanitation practice - it is the health of your yeast - I think this is awesome advice.

If you have a good health yeast fermentation you do four things: 1. Remove all oxygen from solution (aerobic microbes can not survive), 2. Lower the pH to range that many other microbes can not survive, 3. create enough alcohol content that many microbes can not survive, 4. consume all the "food and nutrients" that other organisms would otherwise use themselves to survive and reproduce. Couple this with good sanitization and alpha-acids from the hops and you have a great recipe for beer to naturally fight off unwanted microbes from taking grip!

I would say your weak point right now is probably oxygen contamination/sanitation. Aerobic bacteria need oxygen to survive, so if you don't have a closed vessel you risk that class of microbes to a higher degree. That being said it seems like if you leave the bucket undisturbed you might not even have oxygen getting back into the beer since the CO2 produced during fermentation can "blanket" the liquid beer fluid surface since it is more dense and act as a gas layer that prevents too much oxygen from getting back in.

All this to say still probably don't do anything and I would still just leave it as in. Really the les you take the lid off the better. You could probably marginally improve your chances of no infection by sealing the lid and jerry-rigging some kind of air lock, but it's probably not necessary. Racking to secondary you have all the same problems - you expose the beer to a lot of air and potential microbes that could be airborne and on the new surfaces, potentially get a lot of oxygen back into the solution, and now risk infection in a totally new way. What yeast did you use - if its one known for a really strong fermentation I would be extra-not-worried

This is great info thanks.
I used Mangrove Jacks M44 yeast.