Moved to secondary too early

[xben]

Hi all,

I am a new homebrewer and I think I made a mistake with my 2nd batch. The process of my first one, a very simple blonde Ale, was a success (2row+cascade hop + S-04 yeast). I brewed my 2nd batch last sunday (Sept. 29th), which is a brown Ale. Here are my ingredients :

Munich malt (50%)
2 row malt (20%)
Caramel 40L (15%)
Chocolate (5%)
Candi sugar (10%)

Cascade hop
Galena hop
Saaz hop

Safbrew S-33 yeast (2 packs)

Here is my problem :

Assuming the behavior of the primary fermentation was the same as my first batch, I started to move to secondary after only 2 days. There was a cake at the bottom of the bucket and the krausen was dropped. While I was moving the beer to the carboy, I took the gravity measurement and noticed it was... 1.025, while I was waiting for nearly 1.014! Almost the half of the batch was already transferred at this moment. I decided to continue and grab a part of the cake, thinking the fermentation would continue in the carboy. I put the carboy out of my fermenter chiller to room temperature (steady at ~72F), thinking my primary was stopped because of too cold temperature. 2 days later, there is some tiny bubbles on the top of the beer and the airlock is bubbling ~1 bubble every 45-60 seconds.

Should I leave the carboy and hoping to obtain a gravity of 1.014 or should I add a re-hydrated pack of yeast?

thank you for your help!

Ben

 

[BigFloppy]

leave it alone, there's plenty of yeast in suspension..

Think about when you're bottling, you don't add more yeast, just more sugar for the yeast to snack on to carb up your beer

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Agreed, leave it. It might be a tad bit slower reaching final gravity, but nothing to worry about.

 

[kombat]

I agree, leave it alone. On a side note, why did you rack it to secondary at all? Why not just leave it in primary until you're ready to bottle?

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Most people just leave it in primary for 2-3 weeks. only way to check is by doing gravity readings. Most people will take a reading at 7-10 days and then another 1-2 reading every other day to make sure it is consistent. Then bottle or keg

 

[Hopper5000]

what was your mash temperature? most people don't secondary anymore because there isn't much of a point. generally it's good to leave the beer on the yeast and in primary for at least 2 weeks.

 

[xben]

I decided to move to secondary because my first beer, unless it tastes very good to me, is a little cloudy. Even if it's not the same recipe, I wanted to see the difference.. the only difference I see now is the over manipulating process that could result into a mess!

thanks for fast replies, I'm now less worried about my beer!

 

[xben]

I mashed at 68C (155F) over 75 minutes + 10 minutes mash out at 78C (172F)

 

[kombat]

I decided to move to secondary because my first beer, unless it tastes very good to me, is a little cloudy.

That's a common misconception. Moving the beer off the yeast does not actually make it any clearer. If anything, it actually makes it cloudier, at least in the short term.

Think about it. After fermentation finishes, the yeast and other sediment slowly starts falling out of suspension. The particles near the bottom don't have as far to go, so they settle on the bottom pretty quickly. The ones near the top have a long way to go, so they take longer to reach the bottom. Consequently, your beer will clear "from the top down." That is, the top part of the beer will be clear before the bottom, because the particles have to all fall down to the bottom.

After a few days, the particles near the bottom have already settled into the trub, while the ones that started near the top have only made it halfway down the beer. The top half of the beer is clear, and the lower half is still a little cloudy.

Then you rack the beer to a secondary vessel, which mixes all those particles still in suspension back into a uniform distribution. Some start out all the way back at the top again, and must fall all the way down all over again, whereas if you'd just left them alone, they were already halfway to the bottom.

 

[AnOldUR]

That's a common misconception. Moving the beer off the yeast does not actually make it any clearer. If anything, it actually makes it cloudier, at least in the short term.

I'd argue that a beginner with questionable racking skills and a bucket will get clearer beer using a carboy secondary. Will it be oxygenated? Will it be infected? Those are the potential risks he has to consider.

 

[feinbera]

You can also swirl the carboy once or twice a day, to make sure what yeast you have left is still well-suspended, at least until your gravity readings stop going down.

But, yeah, if you cold-crash and auto-siphon from the top, there's no reason you can't get very clear beer outta your primary.

 

[xben]

I'm scared to open the carboy and release the CO2 "protection" on top of the beer to take gravity readings.. should I leave it closed and take one reading in 1-2 weeks and crossing my fingers it will be OK?

 

[Hopper5000]

i was asking about your mash temp because if you mashed high it might be done. did you taste it while racking?

 

[ArcLight]

That's a common misconception. Moving the beer off the yeast does not actually make it any clearer. If anything, it actually makes it cloudier, at least in the short term.

I don't agree

Short term is irrelevant.
You don't rack, and immediately rack again. You let the racked beer sit 2 weeks or whatever the time period is. That will be enough time for particles and yeast to resettle that were already in the process of settling.

When racking, you will pull up some of the yeast sediment, unless you leave a lot of beer.
But if you rack to the secondary, and don't leave a lot of beer, (and thus take up some extra yeast) what you do is let that settle (2+ weeks). Now you have a much smaller yeast cake (more a thin layer than a cake).
Now if you rack off that , you will pull up much less yeast (because there is no cake, just a thin layer). You end up with less yeast in your beer.

I personally don't do this, I rack and leave a little extra (very yeasty) beer.
The reason I don't rack is I dont want to take a small risk and Oxidize my beer. Or take a small risk of infection. Or spend the extra time for little benefit.

 

[xben]

yes I did, and it was tasty but weak in alcohol

 

[xben]

I swirled the carboy the last 4 days and took a gravity measurement today... and it still at 1.025.. could it be done? There's a lot of sugar in that recipe. It doesn't taste that sweet but it is weak in alcohol.

I plan to add a re-hydrated pack of yeast on Monday to see if I can get it to 1.014, as expected.

Is there any procedure to follow to pitch yeast when there is alcohol already?

 

[midfielder5]

new brewer = impatience. It has been only 6 days from when you first pitched the yeast, right?!

Relax and let the yeast do their job. Brew another beer and let this one sit for another ten days or so. Then check gravity and decide if you need more yeast.

For your next beer, pick a tried & true recipe {the brown ale you did just seems weird}. Let it ferment in primary for two weeks before playing with it.

cheers!

 

[xben]

I finally decided to do nothing and let it there... nothing happened since yesterday (October 20th) --> 17 days after the mistake . There is now a 1/4" of light foam on the top of the beer and there is a bubble every 5-10 seconds. Sounds good to me!

 

[xben]

The activity completely stopped 3 days later and I left the beer sit for 4 more days. The gravity is now 1.020. The taste is the same but the alcohol feeling is much better.

According to the ratio of specialty grain I used, it is probably done. BUT, just in case, I racked the entire batch in top of a yeast cake from a batch I bottled yesterday.

If it still 1.020 after 1 week, it will be time to bottle!

 

[xben]

I bottled the beer 2 weeks ago and tasted it last week-end. The carbonation is not fully done yet but it tastes very good to me. I would just probably getting better every week.