OK to transfer to secondary?

[mhansman]

Newbie here - making my second batch.

I'm doing a Drake IPA clone. Calls for a week of secondary fermentation with dry hopping.

It's been a week since I put it in the primary carboy. Did it with a yeast starter and had onset of brisk fermentation by following morning. Still seeing the occasional bubble of CO2 in the airlock, maybe one every 45s.

Is it too early to transfer today? I happen to have the time...

Should I take a specific gravity reading to use as my guide?

I'm assuming it will continue to ferment in the secondary.

thanks.

 

[chuckcomm]

I would give it another week at the least then dry hop in primary for a week and skip secondary all together.

 

[schokie]

Second the advice to skip secondary and dry hop in primary.

Ignore the airlock. Pretend it isn't even there. It's not telling you anything useful.

What's your gravity? Wait until fermentation is complete and the yeast are dropping out to dry hop. Otherwise the hop boils with bind to the yeast still in solution, and when the yeast flocculate they'll take the hop oils with them. There's nothing you can do short of filtering and dry hopping in a keg to prevent this, but giving your beer time will minimize it.

Just do what chuckcomm said.

 

[mhansman]

Thanks you guys. Realize now I should have put this in the 'beginners' section of the forum.

One add-on question. I plan on kegging this beer. As I read more about dry hopping here on the various forums, I see that some people will place the dry hops into the keg, transfer beer from the primary into the keg, leave at room temp for +/- 5 days, then into the fridge.

So...the question - would you just leave the hops in the keg, or do I need to use a hop bag and take that out of the keg before I put it in the fridge?

Thanks again - the info I'm gleaning from this forum board is pretty amazing.

 

[schokie]

No worries, the sections overlap, so often you can put a thread in any category.

I'd think the hop bag would be the better option, but as I don't dry hop in the keg I can't say.

I dry hop in primary, cold crash, then keg. No issues that way. Sometimes I filter, but usually I'm too lazy for that.

 

[kh54s10]

IMO, though I have never done it, BAG ANY HOPS going into a keg. Otherwise you risk clogging the pick up tube.

 

[rorypayne]

Always bag in the keg or you WILL get a clogged pick up tube. I have done both methods of dry hopping and I feel like the keg method maintains the hop flavor for a longer period of time.