Understanding Hydrometer to know when to transfer

[de5m0mike]

Ok, so I'm pretty new to this. This is my first post. I'm brewing my 3rd batch right now, a partial grain recipe for an ESB that I picked up at my LHBS. Up till now I've pretty much just followed the directions and crossed my fingers but now I'm looking to make better beer and it seems I need to pay closer attention to temperatures and hydrometer readings to do that.

So anyway, I have a question. I've been lurking around the forum reading as much as I can trying to figure out how to know the optimal time to transfer from primary to secondary and then to bottle. (I'm not yet equipped to keg.) Seems some people just use blanket rules like the 1-2-3 rule others say 10 days in each, others say let the beer tell you when to transfer. Letting the beer tell you when it's ready seems to make the most sense to me, but I don't exactly understand what that means. I assume it's some sort of hydrometer reading but I also understand there is no specific number that you are looking to hit as it's different with each beer. So if it's not a specific number what are you looking for? Is it a certain amount of difference from the OG? We did a 5 gal. boil with the ESB and the OG was 1.052.

Ok, so one more question. After 5 days in the primary at 65º the activity seemed to have slowed significantly. I checked the gravity (it was 1.020) and transfered it to the carboy. At this point it started to suck water from airlock into the beer which had me worried for a min. but then I realized it was probably because the glass carboy was cold and it started to cool the beer and cause the air to condense. Over the next several hours the beer temp dropped to about 62º despite moving it to a warmer part of the house. It sat there for almost two days before I could get the temp back up around 70º which is where it's been for the last two days. It's actually at 68º right now. Other than the brief time when the temp was rising and the air was expanding again I have seen zero activity in the air lock. I'm not exactly sure what I should do now. Do I keep it at 68º-70º for a couple more days or should I put it in the basement and let the temp drop somewhere below 60º to clarify the beer. I'm looking to get as clean a beer as possible without sacrificing flavor.

Wow. I know that was a lot for a first post. Thanks for reading and thanks for your help.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Hold your hydrometer up to a calander. Measure out 1 week with your hydrometer and....

Just kidding.

Really, you don't need to use the hydrometer.

When activity has stopped, you are OK....assuming you even want to secondary.


I primary until I am ready to bottle, or I am ready to brew and need the yeast cake.

 

[VTBrewer]

Welcome to the board and the addiction, you seem to have a good foundation already.

I myself only secondary when I am adding fruit, lagering, or need one of my primaries to be filled with something else. Many of us do that, and many other capable brewers secondary every ale. You'll find what works for you. the general rules i've used are:

1. Primary only, 3 weeks usually does the trick, but 3 days of same reading confirms it. This usually happens around day 10 or so, but the yeas clean up nicely given another 10 days or so.

2. Secondary, around day 10. The secondary isn't really for fermenting at all, so when i get a gravity reading that is 75% less that OG (1.015 on a 1.060) I'm pretty sure its about done and ok to rack.

75% attenuation is what you're looking for with most yeasts.

 

[malkore]

1. pretty much every recipe you find (or create), you'll have an estimated final gravity. So you have a ballpark FG number in advance.

2. to really be effective you use the hydro several times. once to get the OG, and then 2-3 more times to determine if its done.

a good general rule is to not bother taking the first FG reading until at least day 7 to 10 after pitching. At that point most beer styles would be done. When you get two FG readings that are the same, 3 days apart, and its at or close to the estimated FG...its finished fermenting.

That is the 'scientific' way to do it. As you can see, its pretty easy to state "leave it 10 days and then rack/bottle" because most of the time that works. Of course the one time it doesn't work you get exploding bottles.

I like the 3 week primary idea, but would still take an FG at day 10 or 14 to be safe.

I do like to do a secondary because I always get yeast sucked up when racking (usually because I've been drinking) so the secondary helps me get a clean product into the bottle/keg.

 

[homebrewer_99]

First off, welcome...

Second, learn to keep exact notes of what you did, etc.

Third, take your temperature and OG readings before adding any yeast.

Most yeast attenuates around 75%. To figure that out you need your OG (say 1.060) and divide by 4 (60 / 4 = 15). The number remaining is the estimated FG (1.015).

You should NEVER rack to the secondary until the estimated FG is met. You can rack if it's like 1.016, but not 1.020. The higher number indicates a stuck fermentation. Of course, this is corrected most of the time when you do rack that early because you rouse the yeast and it starts working again. But this should actually be done in the primar.

The purpose of a secondary is for clearing. There shouldn't be any real fermentation going on in the carboy.

 

[de5m0mike]

Thanks for the great advice. Sounds like maybe I rushed it though. It had been at 1.02 for two days though and I thought that meant it was done. Is there something I may have done that would have caused the yeast to stall out. I'm pretty sure the temp never got below 64º. Was it possibly that I didn't aerate it well enough before putting it in the primary? I can't really think of anything else. Also, was there anything other than transferring it to the secondary that would have gotten the yeast going again?