I'm working on a raspberry ale. I used frozen berries and sanitized them in the wort after boiling (I used two 10 oz packages of frozen berries), and then I did the primary fermentation in a bucket (with air lock) so that the berries could hang out in the wort. OG was about 1.036. Anyway, it's been 14 days and I'm still getting some bubbles in the air lock, about every 2 minutes and 10 secs. The krausen appears to have mostly dropped, though there's still some sediment on top, little islands clinging to the floating raspberries. Yesterday I took a hydrometer reading and came up with about 1.011 or maybe 1.012. I tasted it there was a kind of bitter aftertaste. Today, the reading was in the same area about 1.011 and again with the bitterness. -- Hopefully it wasn't contaminated. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out when it's okay to move this bastard over to my glass carboy to remove some of the sediment, and let it clear for a few days, before bottling. Am I good to move it now, or should I let it hang out? My fear is that this brewwill end up like my last beer - which tasted kind of yeasty after a long, drawn-out fermentation. What say you?
Safe to move to secondary?
- Thread starter mathieu
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If it's at fg, it's good to move. You can go ahead and put it in secondary. 
Yooper Chick said:If it's at fg, it's good to move. You can go ahead and put it in secondary.
Thanks. I moved it into my secondary, and it was pretty clean -- with the exception of a few berry pieces getting sucked into the carboy. -- One other question though (and then I'll be done): I've never been clear on how stable the carboy has to be. For instance: after I racked from the bucket into the carboy I had to carry the carboy into the basement where the temperature is lower. Am I doing any damage by inadvertently disturbing the beer the carboy as I move it?
No damage at all. Just don't slosh any oxygen into the beer. The only time you'd want to avoid disturbing the beer is after waiting weeks for the beer to settle and clarify.mathieu said:
Oh yeah...you are no where near being done asking questions.....
BierMuncher said:No damage at all. Just don't slosh any oxygen into the beer. The only time you'd want to avoid disturbing the beer is after waiting weeks for the beer to settle and clarify.
Oh yeah...you are no where near being done asking questions.....
I know it. It's my fourth batch, and I still freak out and ask questions of the local homebrew shop and the fine people here in the forum. I also consult a couple of books. It's still going to knocked around a bit when I bring the carboy back up to the kitchen for bottling. When it's time, maybe what I'll do is haul it up in the morning and hope things settle by the evening.
That's what I do- drag it into the kitchen and up on the island the night before so that it re-settles. Right now, my laundry room is 64 degrees and it's on the main floor, so I've got it pretty easy! When I have to move my fermenters to the basement if it gets hot in the main floor, I think I'll use my plastic Better Bottles. I hate the idea of carrying 5 gallons of beer in a glass carboy up from the basement!
