Secondary question

[BigBlueBrad]

I want to transfer my Hefe to a secondary. I know. But, I want to see the difference between doing it and not doing it. Active fermentation finished four days ago, but I still have at least an inch of krauzen on the top.

Does it matter how thick the krauzen it is before I transfer. I have not transferred in three years and cannot remember.

 

[Revvy]

WHat do you mean by active fermentation? Are you talking about airlock bubbling? That means nothing. Krausen usually indicates that fermentation is still happenning though with some wit yeasts the krausen can linger...The best way to know is to take a gravity reading, anything else can be deceiving.

Besides nowadays it's preferable to leave the beer in a long primary to let the yeast clean up after itself and clear the beer. I leave my beers in primary for a month.

Now as to secondarying a hefe, the question is why? Secondaries if folks still use them are to clear beer or to bulk age it, neither of these conditions are what folks want with hefes. Hefes are supposed to be consumed young and cloudy...so a secondary is not needed.

Just leave your beer alone for another 10 days, then take a grav reading or two if it's at terminal gravity go ahead and bottle or keg.....

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Transferring while it's krausened is fine. This allows the extra fermentation to push oxygen out of the secondary. Just make sure it doesn't have too much to go...