i just racked my first batch into the secondary. Its a cherry melomel. Is the airlock suppose to be active at this point. Its been 24 hours since i transferred into secondary and nothing. It tastes pretty damn good ( i drank the hyrdometer test jar.) So what should i do/ expect.
stupid noob question.
- Thread starter nobo_87
- Start date
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Well, I'm guessing you racked into secondary after a week or 10 days so more than likely the aggressive fermentation phase is complete and there will not be much activity in the secondary airlock, maybe none at all and that's ok.
What many beer kit instructions tell a person is to rack to a secondary after 7-10 days and then let sit. Some even say bottle after 7-10 days. That is generally a marketing thing. Most all homebrewers do that at first. Then, for the love of brewing join a form like this one here and find out the home brew stores don't always provide accurate info, some do and some are more interested in bringing new brewers into their market. The info they tell you or instruction they provide will make beer but if you want to make really good beer.
Time is your friend.
Secondary fermentation in a different carboy/bucket is not a must do.
Temperature of the fermenting wort (not ambient air temp) is very important
Time is on your side.. the longer the better.
Infections are uncommon, especially with the sanitation products readily available.
Ya know, I think I forgot your first question.. Not really. The only true way to understand what is happening in the fermenter is to take specific gravity readings with a hydrometer. You take a reading after the wort is cooled to yeast pitching temp and before the yeast is added. Note it, you should be well within the range the recipe calls for. This is the original gravity of your wort (soon to be beer) Next add the yeast. After about a week or two take another gravity reading and you'll see a significant drop. If the drop is near the recipes final gravity then it's probably ok to bottle, just take the reading a few days in a row to make sure it stays the same, if it keeps dropping the yeast are still doing there job eating sugars, farting co2 and peeing alcohol. Once the specific gravity remains the same a few days.. bottle it up.
Sorry for the long answer hope it helps a bit. Read up on these forums, especially go to the Beginner Brewers section, a ton of great post there that will answer many questions. Brewing is like anything else, it takes time to understand.
Okay.. last bit of unwanted advice. Time and patience are some of your best freind's when it comes to brewing beer.
What many beer kit instructions tell a person is to rack to a secondary after 7-10 days and then let sit. Some even say bottle after 7-10 days. That is generally a marketing thing. Most all homebrewers do that at first. Then, for the love of brewing join a form like this one here and find out the home brew stores don't always provide accurate info, some do and some are more interested in bringing new brewers into their market. The info they tell you or instruction they provide will make beer but if you want to make really good beer.
Time is your friend.
Secondary fermentation in a different carboy/bucket is not a must do.
Temperature of the fermenting wort (not ambient air temp) is very important
Time is on your side.. the longer the better.
Infections are uncommon, especially with the sanitation products readily available.
Ya know, I think I forgot your first question.. Not really. The only true way to understand what is happening in the fermenter is to take specific gravity readings with a hydrometer. You take a reading after the wort is cooled to yeast pitching temp and before the yeast is added. Note it, you should be well within the range the recipe calls for. This is the original gravity of your wort (soon to be beer) Next add the yeast. After about a week or two take another gravity reading and you'll see a significant drop. If the drop is near the recipes final gravity then it's probably ok to bottle, just take the reading a few days in a row to make sure it stays the same, if it keeps dropping the yeast are still doing there job eating sugars, farting co2 and peeing alcohol. Once the specific gravity remains the same a few days.. bottle it up.
Sorry for the long answer hope it helps a bit. Read up on these forums, especially go to the Beginner Brewers section, a ton of great post there that will answer many questions. Brewing is like anything else, it takes time to understand.
Okay.. last bit of unwanted advice. Time and patience are some of your best freind's when it comes to brewing beer.
Nobo, i just realized you are posting about mead. I know nothing about mead.. damn wish I did. Best of luck!
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
If it hadn't finished fermenting etc, and you racked it too secondary, then you will have removed a large amount of the yeast colony.
That's not to say it's a bad move, just that it takes time to re-establish the fermentation to a level where you will see airlock activity (presuming that it's a good seal on the fermenter and isn't just leaking the CO2 without creating bubble movement in the airlock.
The movement to secondary is something that's suggested/recommended quite a lot, often when there's still residual sugars remaining and a formerly active ferment occurring. I'm not convinced that racking at this stage is either necessary i.e. why disturb a ferment that's progressing well, when removing the must off the sediment is likely to be detrimental, inasfaras, it can cause lag or even a stalled ferment ? Yes, people will continually worry about any airspace in a primary fermenter, yet while the ferment is going "full tilt", the airspace will be filled with CO2 which acts as a protective blanket for the ferment.
Of course, there are other issues connected to this i.e. when you want to add some fruit for a maximum fruit flavour/colour/aroma to secondary, while the fruit actually contains fermentable sugars, the small amount of fermentation activity it can/may/does entail, isn't usually enough to destroy the fruit flavour/colour/aroma in the same way that primary fermentation does. It's still a point where you'd be wanting to exclude as much air as possible to prevent any onset of possible oxidation etc......
TheBrewingMedic
Well-Known Member
let's see if we can simplify things a bit and answer your question....The airlock may or may not have activity in it, doesn't mean there is no fermentation going on, near the surface and around the edges, especially if you are using a glass carboy, you may see some tiny cascading bubbles indicating there is still some yeast at work. What were the hydrometer readings? that'll give you an indication if fermentation has pretty much run its course yet or not. if it has then youre good to let it sit and age, racking as needed depending one how much sediment you get as it clears.
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