Racked too early.

[agates2114]

To make this quick, I started my syphon to secondary before I took my gravity reading. During syphon, I checked the gravity and realized that I jumped the gun! At About 1.5 gallons in, I quickly reversed the process and racked the beer back to primary.

Will fermentation continue? Should I pitch more yeast? When should I pull another gravity reading?

I realize I made an amateur mistake here and would just appreciate some input.

Hopefully my batch is not ruined.

Thanks!

 

[progmac]

Even if you had racked, it would have been fine. There are still tons of yeast in suspension to do the job.

 

[flars]

Racking back onto the full yeast cake makes it more likely the fermentation will not stall.

 

[agates2114]

Good to hear. I'll give it another week before I pull a sample.

 

[agates2114]

Racking back onto the full yeast cake makes it more likely the fermentation will not stall.

That's certainly what I was hoping for when I decided to go that route.

 

[agates2114]

Racking back onto the full yeast cake makes it more likely the fermentation will not stall.

That's certainly what I was hoping for when I decided to go that route.

 

[peterj]

I agree, it'll be fine. Just out of curiosity, what was the gravity? And how long had it been in primary?

 

[agates2114]

OG was 1.058. After one week, gravity was 1.048. I had to use a blow off after 48 hrs in. There was a ton of yeast along the walls so I was surprised at how little the gravity had declined.

 

[pfgonzo]

Humm, what are you brewing? What yeast? What temperature? 7 days and only a 10pt drop on a 1.058 beer is not normal. How are you taking SG readings? Hydrometer? Refractometer?

 

[agates2114]

Brewing an IPA. German ale yeast, at about 70° F. I'm using a hydrometer.

 

[pfgonzo]

I think you may need a new one. If you had crazy blow off, but only a 10pt gravity drop, I would guess your hydrometer has problems. It's not too uncommon for the indicator paper to slip on some models. When is the most recent time you've taken a reading?

 

[Hello]

Before buying new toss it in water and it should read 1.000 I believe.

 

[agates2114]

Hydrometer reads 1.000 in distilled water. Blow off wasn't crazy, just replaced the air lock to prevent that from coming loose.

What's strange is that the amount of yeast caked on to the fermenter was normal for 7 days in primary, and that the reading had such a slight drop in that span of time.

 

[Bamsdealer]

Don't follow the directions. Give it another two weeks in the fermenter then bottle. Make sure the gravity is close to where it needs to be first.

 

[agates2114]

Quick update: fermentation is again active (airlock is bubbling).

 

[agates2114]

It's been about 2 weeks since the little mishap. Gravity is now at 1.011 and beer has been transfered to secondary. The beer had less to no yeast suspending, so the transfer looks pretty clear. I will leave it in secondary for a week while dry hopping and then transfer to keg to use the set and forget method for carbing. Will update with tastes along the way.

 

[agates2114]

Yeast or hop sediment? Finally transfered this to secondary and dry hopped. It seems that fermentation resumed for a couple days and a yeast cake formed at top. My question is, shouldn't the suspended yeast eventually fall to the bottom? I only used 1 ounce of hop pellets, is this just hop sediment? Will it fall? It's been 10 days, I figured it would have taken place by now...

 

[sky4meplease]

I would think the dry hops would have settled after ten days.
Maybe a cold crash to settle everything prior to kegging?
Some say dry hopping more than 10 days can lead to grassy flavors.
I just cold crashed an IPA after dry hopping for seven days and am hoping the cold crash will prevent the grassy flavors from developing.

 

[Brew_Bro]

That seems odd to develop a kreisen in the secondary after a couple of weeks primary fermentation; is it a pellicle? Could be you're infected

 

[agates2114]

Looked at some "pellicle" cases, don't think it's that... looks just like yeast. If you read the entire thread you'll see that this fermentation has been strange. I will try to cold crash and check throughout the week.

 

[sky4meplease]

The picture looks like hop trub that hasn't settled yet but also looks like two days dry hopped not ten like you stated.

 

[agates2114]

Dry hopped on the 4th... so 12 days now. Cold crashed today, we'll see.

 

[sky4meplease]

How did the cold crash work out for you?

 

[agates2114]

I'd say it definitely helped. I kegged it today. There still seemed to be some pulp-like sediment floating on top, however. Beer looked pretty hazy also. Should I add gelatin I wonder? Slight taste of acetaldehyde maybe. As the beer came closer to room temp, the off flavor weakened. It will sit for a week before I taste again.

 

[agates2114]

Haven't been back to this thread for a bit, guess I was a little depressed.

I had to toss my first batch. I guess life goes on. Blaming either A. Bacteria in hoses or B. Had a miss-hap with my chiller that brew day. A band clamp from the water in end came loose, leaking unfiltered, dirty hose water into my wert.

Brewed an Irish Red since that came out great! Also, I have a smash centennial/2row pale ale that's in secondary!

Live and learn! Thanks for the help.

 

[xdfxdgh]

Even if you had racked, it would have been fine. There are still tons of yeast in suspension to do the job.

 

[Pataka]

Even if you had racked, it would have been fine. There are still tons of yeast in suspension to do the job.

Interesting, as that's what I thought from my winemaking experience as well. However, at the start of last week I racked a small batch into secondary early (I wanted it early as I wanted it to still be fermenting and use the blanket of CO2 as a shield from oxygen, since my only carboy is full right now. However, it stalled for a couple of days. I ended up making a yeast starter (I used yeast harvested from another batch that's currently fermenting, so couldn't just pitch) and it got going again pretty quick after that. It's so much more comforting now to see that nice big yeast cake at the bottom as it bubbles away.