Total noobie, First brew is it ready to put into pressure barrel

[tompither]

This is my first brew of woodforde's wherry. It's been in primary for a week. The instructions say to leave it there for 4-6 days before transferring to secondary. I have a pressure barrel that I am going to use for secondary fermentation and conditioning. I tested the OG two days ago and again today and it is 1010. The problem is there looks to be still some yeast on the top. Is this normal? should I transfer it the pressure barrel?

 

[flars]

It does look like some yeast still floating on the surface. There is also a sheen that looks like a pellicle forming, but that could also be reflection of the light in the picture.
You can leave your beer in the primary and wait for the yeast to settle. Then bottle directly from the primary. I typically leave my beers in the primary three weeks then bottle. Less work and no risk of infection or oxidation from a secondaries headspace with little CO2 in it. More time in the primary also gives the yeast time to clean up the natural off flavors of fermentation.
The directions that come with kits are rather generic. The same recipe for all of the kits without regard for the beer being brewed. These recipes are for brewing volume and not the best beer that it could be.

 

[Omahawk]

I'm with what flars said.

Is the pressure barrel ultimately what you plan on serving from? If so, do you pressurize it by adding priming sugar? I'm guessing it's a real ale thing, and you don't force carbonate it with CO2.

Either way, leaving it in the primary until you're ready for it's final packaging (whether bottled, pressure barrel or forced CO2 keg) for more than 4-6 days is the way to go. 3 weeks in the primary is low risk.

I Googled the Woodforde's Wherry - sounds tasty. Enjoy.

 

[Queequeg]

Woodforde's Wherry is a nice beer. A friend of mine has made that kit a few times, his parents live near the Brewery too so when you goes to see them he gets to drink plenty of Wherry. The kit is pretty good.

Anyhow leave it in the primary for 3 weeks, then rack to the barrel on top of the priming sugar and allow it to carb. When you serve use the CO2 bulb to replace the head space stop oxidization.

 

[Omahawk]

... rack to the barrel on top of the priming sugar and allow it to carb. When you serve use the CO2 bulb to replace the head space stop oxidization.

Sorry to hijack, but this sounds like a cool piece of equipment. Are the CO2 bulbs one-time use, or do you refill them? I have not seen them in the US.

 

[Queequeg]

Yeah its an English homebrew thing.

Here's how it works

 

[tompither]

Thanks for all the great advice. Guess the answer is to leave it alone for another couple of weeks. flars got me a little worried with talk of a pellicle, but to be honest I think that is just how the photo has come out. There is no visible sheen, just a few bubbles still forming on the top. I assume this is from the yeast still being active. Having also read a few more threads from this forum, I think my main issue is new brewer's impatience. Just want to get it out of the primary so that I can free it up to get my 2nd brew under way. I am planning to serve it from the pressure barrel, Going to pressurise it by adding priming sugar, I do have a CO2 bulb to replace the head space as I serve it. Was also going to put some in a few bottles to save for later and see how it matures.

I am an English real ale drinker. Interested to know if other real ale folk use a pressure barrel or bottles. Am beginning to wonder if I got oversold the barrel by the man in the brew shop.Seemed like a good purchase at the time. Less bother than bottles as I imagine the final product will be hanging around too long once it is ready to drink.

 

[Queequeg]

I bottle. I have never used the barrel system. The advantage I can see is you will get bulk conditioning like you do with a real ale and you save on the labour involved in bottling.

 

[Omahawk]

The pressure barrel seems like the equivalent of kegging. I will tell you that I have not once regretted switching from bottling to kegging. So much less work.