Primary to Secondary

[billf2112]

After 10 days (felt like a year) I moved my Irish Stout to the secondary.

The color was perfect and the fragrance was so awesome, I wanted to dive right in.

There was about 3/4 inch of trub left behind in the primary does that sound right? I did strain out some of it after the boil.

There was not much on top, some foam around the edges and a ring of trub.

I think all is going well. Any thoughts?

 

[HOPCousin]

All sounds normal to me. A little more will settle out now. Give at least another 3-4 weeks in your secondary for it to come together and then bottle condition for 6 weeks at least after that before you will even get close your possible flavors. What is the %ABV? Fight the temptation to drink it before then. The other thing that is nice is to drink one bottle a week and note how it changes over time.

 

[HOPCousin]

Once you get past the first month of bottle conditioning it will really start to pop with flavor and you will be happy don't judge it too much before then.

 

[Batinse]

Don't sweat it! Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew. What you're seeing is exactly what should be happening. Most folk around here don't even bother to rack to a secondary any more.

Take a hydrometer reading in a couple days, see what's what. Then bottle or keg and enjoy your stout!

 

[Frodo]

Give at least another 3-4 weeks in your secondary for it to come together and then bottle condition for 6 weeks at least after that before you will even get close your possible flavors.

It's up to you how long you leave it at any particular stage. The 3-4 wks in secondary and 6 wks in bottle seem excessive to me; your Irish Stout I assume is a dry stout and the gravity is low enough on a dry stout to not really need that much time to age. Age will help mellow the roasty notes in the stout and it'll become smoother. BUT basically it's up to YOU to figure out how long YOU like to leave the beer at any particular stage. It's all about enjoyment, and there really are no wrong ways to do things as long as you're enjoying what you're doing. I fpersonally ind it enjoyable and educational to try the beer along the way.

 

[Frodo]

There was about 3/4 inch of trub left behind in the primary does that sound right? I did strain out some of it after the boil.

You don't have to worry about the trub getting into the fermenter. The only negative thing about it really is that it makes it harder to estimate the volume of beer you have. And I guess if you're pushing the volume of your fermenter to it's max that could be bad... It can be much more than 3/4 inch, like 2 or 3 inches... Then there's usually a thick blanket of dormant yeast on top of that once it's flocculated out.

 

[billf2112]

The kits says fermenate for 2 weeks and carbonate for 2 more. I think that is a little fast. Plan on 2 weeks in secondary then bottle, will try 1 after 2 weeks.

Itching to do another batch, think a red ale is next.

 

[Brewer_Bob]

The kits says fermenate for 2 weeks and carbonate for 2 more. I think that is a little fast. Plan on 2 weeks in secondary then bottle, will try 1 after 2 weeks.

Itching to do another batch, think a red ale is next.

Yeah, the kit instructions often give an accelerated timeline so as not to discourage new brewers. If you follow the instructions you will have beer. Maybe even good beer. But if you just wait a bit longer it will be so much better. I have been popping open a bottle each week to see how the flavor changes and it is amazing. All the little imperfections I tasted in my beer after two weeks in the bottle were completely gone after three weeks.

Get another batch going. And then another. If you have a pipeline going then being patient isn't near as painful.

 

[billf2112]

I think I am on the right track, thanks for your valuable input.