primary fermentation

[brianduranbd11]

first time brewing, I'm doing a rye IPA and everything seems to be on track, and i switched my brew over to my primary fermenter last night, should i expect the it ti release more gases? and is there any indication other than the general timeline to help me know when to bottle

 

[johngaltsmotor]

The only safe way to know is a hydrometer reading. When you have the same gravity reading for 3 days in a row (measure today, measure again in 3 days, if the same bottle, if not check in another 3 days.) Otherwise it may still be active and you'll blow up your bottles as the yeast create too much CO2 and the bottles can't take the pressure.
If you don't want to bother with a hydrometer then the safe rule of thumb on typical beers (not high gravity) is to wait 3 weeks before bottling.

 

[boydster]

A hydrometer is the only way to be certain. When did you brew this? I usually wait until between day 10 and 14 after fermentation begins to take my first hydrometer sample, then take another 3 days afterwards.

If you just transferred into primary (meaning you moved it from the brew kettle into the fermenting vessel), you probably want to wait a little while before you start taking samples and there will be lots of CO2 generated. If you transferred from a primary vessel (like a bucket or carboy) into a second fermenting vessel (called a secondary or bright tank) then you would typically want to take a couple gravity samples before transferring to make sure you reach the true terminal gravity, which also means there should be little or no CO2 generated after the transfer. It may still off-gas due to temperature and air pressure changes, but the yeast should be done fermenting sugars before you transfer. Transferring early can result in a stuck fermentation.

 

[brianduranbd11]

thank you that helps a lot and also i started 4 days ago and transferred to the secondary yesterday.

 

[C-Rider]

thank you that helps a lot and also i started 4 days ago and transferred to the secondary yesterday.

Next time forget the secondary unless you need the primary for the next brew. If that is the case go buy another primary bucket and forget the secondary unless you are adding something like fruit to your beer.

Untill you get the hydrometer just wait 3 weeks and it will be safe to bottle then.

 

[brianduranbd11]

even when dry hopping i can forget the secondary?

 

[kh54s10]

thank you that helps a lot and also i started 4 days ago and transferred to the secondary yesterday.

You should wait until you reach final gravity before transferring to secondary. You need to take 2 gravity readings with 24 hours between and get the same reading. At 4 days you were probably not at FG.

I find that most fermentations with good temperature control take 5 - 10 days to finish. That said I don't use a secondary and never take a gravity reading before day 14. So I am going on activity that usually does not stop for at least 5 days.

As to timeline. Most directions have them. Forget that! Yeast cannot tell time. Yeast will do their job on their own schedule. Use a hydrometer

 

[azazel1024]

even when dry hopping i can forget the secondary?

Yes. Its something I only recently learned (I am of the wise old experience of 3 bottled brews and 1 done fermenting and aging and 1 still fermenting).

A lot of what I have read has gone around an about, but the general consensus seems to be you only need a secondary if

A) You are doing a really high gravity beer, sometimes it makes sense to move it of the trub after a few weeks (yeast and sediment cake that forms at the bottom of the primary)...but isn't really necessary according to many.
B) You are adding fruit (because you don't necessarily want it all dropping down in to the trub, and you are probably adding a BUNCH, so you can't just stick it in a hop bag)
C) For some reason you need to slightly accelerate clarifying things (debatable?)

You can dry hop right in the primary. A bucket makes it a little more difficult to do, but you can pop the lid and either toss the hops right in, or better use a hop bag, tie a string to it and carefully close the bucket lid over the string.

I am personally inclined to start just using my carboys for primary. It is fun to watch the fermentation work. My latest, Middle English Honey Brown Ale, is my first right in the carboy. A 3G one with a 2.5G batch. Its right at the tale end of high Krausen now on day 3 and fermentation is just starting to slow down. Between the hypnotic bubbling of the airlock and watching the foaming and occasional slow drop of some sediment from the krausen I could sit there all day.

I do need to get my carboys soon. I have the bucket and 6G carboy that came in my kit and I recently bought a 3G better bottle plastic carboy for smaller batches. I think I need another 3G and a 6G for my future amitious plans. I haven't done anything over 1.062 original gravity yet, but I have several very high gravity beers planned soon and as long as they are going to need to sit in the fermenters, I probably will need to rack one or more of them to secondaries at some point to free up the bucket (and both are likely to be 5 gallon batches).

 

[azazel1024]

As a clarification, some people have said they've left their brews in the primary for an entire year and it ended up being the best beer they ever made. There is the rare person who said they tasted off flavors after leaving sitting in the primary for a month or two.

There are many more who seem to have success just leaving it in the primary for months than there are those who have claimed problems with having done that.

My personal preference, because I am impatient, is to do about 2 weeks in the primary and bottle immediately. Taste at bottling and then a beer every half week there after just to get a feel for how it is maturing (the first 2 brews hit their peaks at 4 weeks and 3 weeks after bottling respectively. The first brew was 7 days total, 3 in primary, 4 in secondary the second brew was 5 in primary and 5 in secondary and the 3rd brew was 1 week in primary 1 week in secondary).

Higher gravity beers I plan on going with a full month before bottling.

After fermentation is done the yeast spends a fair amount of time doing things like reabsorbing fermentation by products and stuff. Some of that can happen in the bottle, but if you are taking the beer of the trub, you are also removing most of the yeast that was in contact with the beer, so you limit how much stuff can be reabsorbed by the yeast. At least this is my understanding of "aging" in your primary.

I hear great things about aging for months, but I don't have the patients or the space to do that. I am sure at some point I'll have the occasional brew I am letting sit and age for months just to see how it turns out. However, I don't have enough bottled or "in the air" to feel confortable doing that right now. Maybe once I have a few more brews bottled I'll be okay with them taking a month or two.

I do really want to try a barleywine. Not sure if I have the willingness to brew one and set it aside for 6-12 months though.