wasn't finished fermenting!!!!!!

[Nmillard]

Well my third attempt at brewing was a belgian wit that after a week i transferred from my fermentation bucket to my glass carboy to add the remaining ground coriander seed. At this point i decided to take a hydrometer reading and concluded the fermentation wasn't complete and slapped a cap and airlock on top and back into the closet it went. well after 24hrs it is bubbling up through the airlock, so my question is besides the mess it is making will this harm my beer??

 

[mvcorliss]

It won't necessarily hurt your beer but it will do permanant staining to your walls and ceiling when the pressure builds up and blows the top off your carboy and your beer onto the ceiling!
You need to carefully remove the airlock and replace it with a blowoff tube. That is nothing more than a larger peice of tubing that fits tightly into the top of the carboy. I think mine is 1" OD. The other end is then placed into a bottle or bucket of water, or better, sanitizer. This will do the same function as the airlock on a much larger scale ... letting the co2 from the carboy out and keeping bad bugs from getting in. Once the fermentation has slowed you can go back to the airlock.
Next time either skip the transfer to secondary completely (it's really not usually needed) or wait another week before racking. The "secondary fermenter" is not really for fermentation rather for conditioning of the beer which can be done just as well in primary.
So a search for "blow off tube" and you should be able to see a few pictures showing the setup.

 

[Nmillard]

Thank you and yeah the only reason i went to the secondary was to add the remaining coriander seed i also wanted to free up my fermentation bucket for a new brew i guess i need more equipment like another carboy and possibly a beer thief. I was also thinking that maybe the transferring may have stirred up the little yeast and got them going again cuz the fermentation seemed to have stopped. what do you think?

 

[RM-MN]

You may have restarted fermentation but even more likely is the release of dissolved CO2 by transferring and adding the corrisnder seeds which form a nucleation site for the CO2 which adds to the release.

You may need more fermentation equipment but instead of a carboy, may I suggest you spend about the same amount of money and but 2 more fermenter buckets? That way you can have 3 fermenters going at once and won't feel the pressure to rack to secondary too soon. Indeed, you may not want to rack to secondary for most beers at all. A thief would be a good idea but a turkey baster works fine in a fermenter bucket where you have a larger opening.

 

[Darwin18]

A week is really too early to move the beer from the primary. If your sold on using a secondary, I would give it at least two weeks. A secondary is for clarifying, not fermenting.

Also curious but why are you adding coriander to the secondary? All the wit recipes I've seen and made have it added at the very end of the boil. Also, a little coriander goes a very long way.

 

[Nmillard]

This particular recipe called for a half ounce in the boil and after a week transfer to secondary and add the other 1/2 ounce. It was in a book I found at the library called Home Brewers Gold. I guess because of my experience with my first two brews I thought it was finished but this was a great learning experience

 

[JLem]

This particular recipe called for a half ounce in the boil and after a week transfer to secondary and add the other 1/2 ounce. It was in a book I found at the library called Home Brewers Gold. I guess because of my experience with my first two brews I thought it was finished but this was a great learning experience

An ounce total of coriander strikes me as a lot, though I've never brewed a Witbier.

Beers may very well be done after a week, though many are not. Regardless, it is good practice to leave it alone for a while longer ( I'll leave my beers in primary for 2-4 weeks, and rarely use a secondary)

 

[Nmillard]

It's supposed to be a Hoegaarden clone

 

[Revvy]

You know you're supposed to take the hydro reading BEFORE you rack the beer, the purpose is to determine whether or not it is time to move the beer yet. Not after you've committed the action that the hydrometer is to tell you whether it's time to do it or not...clearly it was not.

 

[Nmillard]

I'm chalking this up to a newb mistake. I was following the recipe to a tee it said to let ferment for 6 days then transfer to a secondary and add the remaining coriander. I'm gonna let things sit a little longer from now on and check before transferring thanks revvy and like I said above I need to get me a turkey baster or a thief to make things easier.

 

[homebrewdad]

Step one with beer recipe/kit directions: read
Step two: ignore

If the hydrometer doesn't tell you it is done, don't consider any other data.

 

[Nmillard]

I should have known that and the thing is that it wasn't a kit it was a recipe in a book that I took to my LHBS and he got everything I needed and put it in a bag...... Well I I guess at that point you could sort of call it a kit

 

[unionrdr]

It def wasn't done yet,but none the less it'll finish in secondary. I don't use a secondary unless adding oak,fruit or the like. But always let it drop to FG first. It'll be less cloudy,& the yeast still in suspension won't get coated by the oils from the coriander,dry hopping,& the like. They get coated & take the oils to the bottom. I've also noticed in that case,that the yeast cake doesn't pack down as tight.

 

[Nmillard]

Someone told me that each brew is a new lesson and I'm finding that to be true. A little off topic but my first lager is in my fermentation bucket and I want to know if my garage is cold enough to lager in right now. The temp ranges between 32F low and 42F high give or take a few degrees.

 

[JLem]

Someone told me that each brew is a new lesson and I'm finding that to be true. A little off topic but my first lager is in my fermentation bucket and I want to know if my garage is cold enough to lager in right now. The temp ranges between 32F low and 42F high give or take a few degrees.

It's cold enough to lager, though a 10 degree flux like that is not ideal. Just to be sure, you're not fermenting at those temps, right?

 

[Nmillard]

Nope I am fermenting at about 63

 

[Mdsutton]

First 63 seems to be high.
Now to my issue, Brewing first lager,fermented for two weeks at about 52. Pulled out for rest, air lock is bubbling like crazy! I had started this at about 75 for 18 hours than lowered to 52. Stupid NEWBIE I did not take a FG reading. Should i wait for all the bubling to stop,should I put back in the frig? Or should I just Rack it to the secondary after 48 hours?

Thanks!