Moved to Secondary way too early. Help!

[BuffettPack]

Made a mistake with a batch of Caribou Slobber extract. My kit came with 2 Better Bottles (5 gallon and 6 gallon). Mistakenly used the 5 gallon as the primary. 1.5 days in the stopper pops off and I have a mess on my hand.

Probably should have just gotten the blow off hose and attached it and let it go in the 5 gallon carboy, but I decided to just siphon everything into the 6 gallon carboy. I figured if I tried to siphon everything (yeast cake, wort, crud on the bottom) it would continue as if nothing happened. Unfortunately, this seriously slowed down any fermentation. Its 16 hours later and I see no yeast cake and just periodic CO2 bubbles in the airlock.

Is there anything that can be done at this point? Should I buy more yeast and pitch it? Should I wait and see if it picks back up?

 

[RM-MN]

At this point you should just sit back and relax. The majority of the fast part of the fermentation was probably over when you transferred and the slower part is continuing without making much CO2. Give it a couple weeks at least and then check your specific gravity with the hydrometer (you do have one, don't you). Your kit probably gave you an expected FG, something like 1.014-1.016. If your beer is there, check it again in about 5 days to see that it stays the same. If it hadn't changed you can bottle or just let it have a little more time to clean up and settle.

 

[BuffettPack]

Thanks. Yeah, I've got a hydrometer (cheap kit one). I'll give it some time and check.

Anyone know the science behind why it mattered that I moved it? Before this, I had racked to secondary before (usually 2 weeks in) and I leave the spent yeast (crud) at the bottom of the primary. My understanding was I was basically separating the spent yeast from the remainder and that would give the alive yeast a chance to clean up (clear up) the beer. This time, I literally transferred everything to the secondary (crud, etc). Only thing left on the last carboy is a hardened crust. It was bubbling up pretty good still when I moved it (albeit with no stopper or air lock on it since it blew off). I figured since I moved it so early in the process, the fermenting process would continue strong as if nothing happened.

 

[BuffettPack]

Wanted to provide an update (in case another noob runs into the same situation I did).

After racking to the secondary I noticed no activity for the past 2.5 weeks. About 3-4 days ago, I did notice that my stopper had slid up to the top of the carboy. As a result, it wasn't acting as much of a stopper and was probably letting some oxygen in (I later did a search here and learned that the stopper/carboy top being wet caused the stopper to slip). Today I noticed that the airlock is fairly active. Appears that the fermentation is starting back after 3+ week of being dormant. I'm assuming this is because I fixed the stopper. I figure I'll give it another 2 weeks or so in the secondary and then bottle. I'll try a series of hydrometer readings before I do, but I'm not convinced I'm getting accurate readings with my kit hydrometer. Despite the numerous mistakes I've made so far with this batch (boil over, carboy blowout, racked to secondary way too early, stopper not secure on secondary, etc) the beer still smells pretty good.

 

[badbrew]

If the stopper popped then it was probably from co2 pushing it out (if I understand while skimming). No o2 would get in if that happened.

BTW, I'm sure you realize never to repeat that again. Just let it hang out once the air lock is on until it is done fermenting. A blow off mess is nothing that every home brewer hasn't already seen.

 

[JiltedEmu]

Appears that the fermentation is starting back after 3+ week of being dormant. I'm assuming this is because I fixed the stopper.

Fermentation never really stopped. It probably slowed a bit when you transferred the beer off the trub/yeast cake, but the yeast were still eating away at the wort. It's just difficult to tell if they're doing anything without the little bubbling action to confirm it for us.

Despite the numerous mistakes I've made so far with this batch (boil over, carboy blowout, racked to secondary way too early, stopper not secure on secondary, etc) the beer still smells pretty good.

Yeast are awesome, hardy little workers that will keep doing their thing even as we think we're messing them up. Don't worry so much about all the things that weren't "ideal" during your brew. The only thing that could really mess up your beer is an infection. Everything else will work out.

 

[BuffettPack]

If the stopper popped then it was probably from co2 pushing it out (if I understand while skimming). No o2 would get in if that happened.

BTW, I'm sure you realize never to repeat that again. Just let it hang out once the air lock is on until it is done fermenting. A blow off mess is nothing that every home brewer hasn't already seen.

I thought it was the C02 initially, but then I could not get it to go back on no matter how far I jammed it down. Read some threads on here about this happening to others and it was caused by a wet stopper/carboy. I dried each off with a clean towel and popped the stopper back in and it stayed perfectly.

I definitely realize not to repeat my errors. I have a blow off hose/stopper that came with my kit. I will use that everytime in the future. If I had the opportunity to do this one again, I would have just put the blow-off hose on after the blow out and kept it in the same carboy. Would have allowed me to move the beer to bottles much faster (my method is going to set me back 4-5 weeks).