Stout in Secondary

[S2X01]

So I finally got my cream stout onto my secondary. The main reason for the secondary comes from sagely advice from buddies who home brew.

I know....this is a heavily debated step. But- it's already in there so no need to bring that up.

I cold brewed some coffee and poured it into the secondary first, then siphoned my stout on top of it. How long should I let her stay in secondary?

If there's no fermentation happening, can I bottle whenever? I know alot of guys use the secondary for clearing up their creations.....but it's a stout. As long as I'm not transfering any unwanted seperations from the 2nd to the bottling bucket..... clear - schmear right?

 

[slomo]

I would bottle it.

 

[S2X01]

I'll add that it was in the primary for only a week....and as I read more and more about stouts, it seems that most leave them in primary for around 3 weeks.

 

[coffeegod]

i would leave it alone for 2 or 3 weeks if you aren't done fermenting...

 

[S2X01]

Well.......its done bubbling for all I can tell.

 

[Smokeater233]

Bubbling means nothing - the only way to tell if you are good to go on fermenting is with a hydrometer. I had a stout (albeit one that I increased the OG on) that took close to a month to ferment out completely. Now that it's in secondary it's off the yeast cake, but I'd leave it in secondary for awhile now until your hydrometer readings show that you are where you are supposed to be. The coffee will likely skew your readings so you may need to compensate for that...

 

[S2X01]

Okay cool. I guess I need to do some searching on what my FG needs to be.

 

[Smokeater233]

Is this a kit or did you come up with this recipe on your own? If it's a kit then the instructions should make mention of an expected FG. If it's your own creation, did you write the grain bill by hand or use software?

 

[S2X01]

It was a kit.....but to raise the abv, the owner of my brew store had me add more DME. So the kits instruction sheet would be off. I ended up with an OG of 1.062

 

[Smokeater233]

Your FG should still be right in the neighborhood of what the instructions said considering the DME should ferment out completely.

 

[S2X01]

Cool! I'll have to take a sample in the morning!!