Secondary fermentation in primary

[rednekhippiemotrcyclfreak]

So my second batch is in the primary. It started off pretty much like the first batch. The yeast took off after just a few hours and by the first morning it had a two inch or better krauesen and lots of airlock activity. After two days it settled down to a slower bubble per minute or so in the airlock. Then after eight days it looked like it was about to start settling out except for the fact that some hop residue was still on the surface of the beer. I asked a brewpub brewmaster what he thought about it and he said leave in there a while. So I did. Last night the fermentation took off again and now I have about a one inch krauesen with airlock bubbles every 10 to 15 seconds. This is an LME with grains IPA kit from Brewer's Best. Is this normal? If so, why do the kit producers say to bottle after one week?

 

[oberon567]

Kit producers say lots of things. Their goal is to get the consumer to get beer made quickly so it can be consumed quickly so more kits can be purchased. Not all of their comments are actually aligned with making better beer.

There are a number of reasons this could have happened. Due to all sorts of things, temperature, etc, your yeast could have dropped out early on, and then slowly rebuilt itself back up and did its thing. OR You could have gotten an infection which is fermenting some stuff that the beer yeast did not ferment. OR something else could have happened.

Leave it alone, let it finish its new fermentation, then give it another few days or so, maybe an extra week. Then bottle/keg it, let it hang out a bit, and drink it.

 

[Teacher]

It most certainly isn't done.

 

[Orfy]

The kit producers are obviously not experience brewers or don't care or are (you name it)

 

[BarkerBrewing]

I'm still new at homebrewing, but I brewed the Brewer's Best IPA kit for my first batch. I can tell you from experience that the longer you let this sit, the better it will be.

I bottled my beer after 9 days, and I started drinking it around 7 days after bottling. It had a very bitter taste when it hit the tongue and a strange aftertaste which I can't explain. Like any first time brewer, I drank the heck out of it anyway.

I now have about 12 bottles left, and the taste today (after about 6-7 weeks) is so much better than when I had my first few bottles. It really tastes like a decent IPA that I would order in a bar.