I brewed dead ringer 7 days ago today. I over shot the OG 1.075 and it had a very aggressive and fast fermentation that ended in like 4 days i took some gravity reading yesterday and today and got 1.012 both times is it too soon to move it to secondary and dry hop? I have read a lot about yeast clean up in the second week of primary fermentation should i wait? To this point i have always waited 2 weeks regardless. but if i can save a week of time it would be nice
thanks for the advice
Wait. I know that it is difficult but in my experience you really don’t want to rush. I have a note/recipe book and was just looking over my notes from when I started and can’t believe that I use to take beers from primary to secondary (or bottle) in 10 days.
All my beers stay in primary for at least 2 weeks usually 3, just brew more beer more often and you won’t feel the need to save a week.
Yep, leave it. Gotta give the yeast time to clean up any fermentation byproducts. Your beer will thank you for it.
J
Overall I agree wholeheartedly 2 weeks minimum in primary. Being you reached terminal in 4 leave for at least 10 days more before transfer and that is plenty although one factor is temp.
If it is conditioning at/ around 65+ your good, If it is closer to 60 you want a higher temp during conditioning to ramp up metabolism. If it was fermented at a lower temp than 65, such as a lager or a ale done at cooler temps it will still condition just at a lower-slower rate.
Also here is an alternative thought.
Being that primary blow off of CO2 has finished, Dry hop in the primary for another 7-10 days or wait 7 days and dry hop for 4-5 more days. I find less is more in terms of days(not amount!) dry hopped it gives aroma your looking for and less “veggy” taste, Then transfer to secondary and rest for 1-2 weeks just for clarity and “aging out” needs then bottle or keg.
Some would say no need to secondary at all, I beg to differ. I think dry hopping in primary* and allowing a rest in a secondary vessel before final packaging leaves a buffer to be able to drop out more of the vegetative material and other trub left over from dry hopping and primary which leaves the beer with more clarity, some may not care but I find the clarity appealing and also I find that the beers usually exhibit less green character in the bottle/ keg if conditioned for a time in secondary off of gross lees and hop sediment. I had tried the direct keg from primary years ago and it just doesn’t work for me, some find it does.
Well thanks guys for the advice. But I thinly the yeast is telling me to wait they wanted another go at my dead ringer. The air lock is going crazy again 2 weeks it is.
I made the Dead Ringer kit a few months back. I’d echo that more time is better…
I did it with 2 weeks Primary, 2 weeks Secondary, 2 weeks bottle. It tasted very metallic and green at first and I thought I was maybe lost…
With another 2-3 weeks in the bottle it rounded out nicely and tastes super.
I brewed this almost 3 weeks ago and started dry hopping on Monday. I plan to cold crash this weekend, then keg.
I did mine 26 days in the primary, 14 days secondary (dryhopping 14 days), and kegged & carbonated for 7 days.
The first week after carbing it was absolutely astounding. In your face hops. Magical flavor and aroma. It faded and wasn’t as good but still pretty awesome and seemed to get better with age. Still not as good as the first week though.
I am trying to reproduce the same thing with an all grain batch of dead ringer now. 5 days in the primary and trying to stay patient.
I brewed my Dead Ringer extract batch Feb. 12, and there’s still a yeast foam cap present, and stuff dancing up and down from the bottom of the primary fermenter. The temperature has stayed evenly from 65 to 68 F. This is my first 5 gallon batch, and I plan to move it to the secondary fermenter, but I have no idea how long this will take. Would you all recommend using an airlock on the secondary carboy or just a plug…?
Airlock. Just in case. Mine continued to push air well into secondary.
Thanks, I was wondering when you add the last remaining hops, do you kind of rotator the fermenter around so the the hops distribute somewhat evening within the fermenter, or just leave as is? And if you do slowly rotate it, how often should you?
No need to rotate the fermenter.
