when is is appropriate to rack????

[RickyLopez]

I did my red ale 7 days ago..... the fermentation was super aggressive. I had an OG of 1.060...WL california ale yeast. Fermentation was rather aggressive....and caused some overspill....I have a huge amount of yeast caking up on the headspace...and a lot of yeast at the bottom...not to mention all the stuff still in suspension....and all this with no starter.

The bubbling has now stopped completely..but I'm wondering when I should rack this? I ant it to clear up a bit.... and I know a lot of residual yeast will end up up in secondary...which will continue fermentation on a micro level.
What are some good rules of thumb for racking? What will result if I leave it another week on those yeast cakes?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

Rack it when your fermentation is over, take an hydrometer test today and another 2 or 3 days after that if there is no change between those to readings and you are within the expected FG of your recipe transfer to sencondary.

 

[Squirrels]

I would skip the secondary. Your beer will start to clear in another week. If you search the forum for "should I secondary" you will find lots of people in both sides.

I haven't used a secondary in a long time outside of when dry hopping - I haven't regretted that at all.

 

[duboman]

*1 to both above. Generally speaking most people will recommend 2-3 weeks in the primary, sometimes, me included will go 4. No secondary unless dry hopping or fruit, etc.

If you need the primary space then I would do a minimum of 2 weeks primary, check and verify gravity and then rack.

Remember there is a lag time before initial fermentation begins so this first days should not be included in your counting of days so in reality if fermentation did not start until day 2-3 it has really only been fermenting for 4 or 5 days

 

[Obliviousbrew]

Rack to secondary or not is something that is a long-debated topic. Racking or not is up to you but one thing for sure you shouldn´t rack without hydrometer readings, guessing with time or bubbles in the airlock is not a good idea.

 

[InHopsWeTrust]

I've always liked to rack. At the very least to get a nice, clear beer into the bottling bucket when it's time to bottle. Is there a better method of siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket without getting any of the sediment in there? I've had great luck with very clear, sediment free beer when it's bottling time, and I think that has everything to do with racking it. It's one of the easiest steps in the whole process, so why not?
Obviously, you want to make sure fermentation is over first, so definitely take your hydrometer readings now and in a couple of days for any change.

 

[mdgagne]

An extra week in the primary will let the yeast cake compress. You should be able to siphon and avoid sucking any trub into your bottling bucket. My beers have been clearer and better quality since I started doing primary only fermentation.

 

[bighorn_brew]

Here is three scenarios in which I rack, generally I don't rack and haven't racked since started brewing ten years ago, but find it a useful tool in the toolbox in certain situations.

1. I will rack if doing an extended aging (more than a month, and intended to age more than 6 weeks), if I am aging something it generally is higher than normal alcohol and it's my belief that those beers of mine benefit with a bit of time aging and melding.

2. If I am going to add fruit to the beer I will rack off the cake into a second vessel.

3. If a beer has just finished but still cloudy and I need it to go on tap in a day for whatever reason. I will rack onto gelatin fining (properly rehydrated of course) and then crash cool it. This results in a quickly clear beer that is acceptable for the company I keep.

Those are the situations I Use a secondary with, but again I generally don't/haven't use them.