Ok, brewed my first batch, a Belgian White Ale, last Saturday. Expected the primary to run 7-10 days, but bubbling stopped after 4 days, and the mrs. convinced me to jump the gun and rack to secondary last night (5 days). Gravity read 1.01. Transferred to the secondary, but now I’m wondering if I need to let it sit for a while again, or if I should go ahead and bottle this weekend.
I haven’t emptied a full 2 dozen bottles yet either, so the other question is if it will carb properly in a twist on cap growler.
The yeast have converted most all the sugars to alcohol, but they are still working to improve the beer. I’d recommend waiting another 5 - 10 days before bottling. I don’t have experience bottling in a twist-top growler - I’ll let someone else answer that. I do know that you can let your beer sit in the secondary for several more weeks if you need that time to collect bottles.
Some people have successfully carbonated beer in a growler. Some have had growlers explode. Growlers are thin glass. They are designed to hold beer that has already been carbonated. They are not made to with stand the high pressure developed during bottle conditioning.
I have bottled a few growlers. I haven’t had any blow. Mine doesn’t seem to be thin, no thinner than a regular bottle as far as I can tell.
That being said, ensure you measure your sugar appropriately for the amount of carbonation you’re looking for. If you’re paranoid, you can twist the cap once a week just to release a small amount of pressure. Realize that doing this will definitely hinder the carbonating process, but at least your growler won’t explode if you happen to go a little overboard on the sugar.
I’ll probably just have to drink a few extra to get empties instead of the growler. Don’t need any issues the first time around.
Next question, when racking from primary to secondary, I didn’t transfer the bulk of the trub. That’s not an issue, right? The secondary fermentation is just from the “floating yeast”, and just let it sit for another week or so to let everything settle.
Tasted what I stole for my gravity reading, and it tasted pretty decent, although much stronger alcohol than I expected.
Next time, you’re probably better off to let it go for a couple of weeks before transferring. There are a lot of intermediate fermentation by-products that the yeast clean up after active fermentation is complete (e.g., diacetyl, acetaldehyde), and if you pull it off the yeast cake too early you might not have enough yeast in suspension to finish the job. However, secondary fermentation only occurs if you add more fermentables to the secondary carboy, such as fruit, honey, or sugar. If you don’t the only thing that happens in a “secondary” vessel is particles settling so you get less trub in your bottles, which a lot of people accomplish by leaving it in primary for 3 weeks or so. I like transferring to secondary; others don’t, so it’s totally your call.
Definitely put in the extra effort to empty some extra bottles - tough job, but it’s got to be done! :mrgreen:
i transferred my first batch to secondary, but haven’t since. Like porkchop said, some like it and some don’t. I’m just lazy :lol:
This is the hardest part, waiting! Definitely let it do it’s thing (i typically let it sit on the yeast cake for 3-4 weeks)and you will be very pleased with the results.
I think the first batch lends to impatience. we want to get the first batch done, so we can taste the success. I wasn’t planning to go with carboys for secondary, but the local brew shop guy convinced the mrs it was the way to go. Not a big deal to me, but keeping the mrs happy with the process always makes it more likely to be successful long term. She also seems to think bottling may end up being a waste of time, so a kegging system may be in the works if it plays out well.
Picking up a second bucket today, and hopefully brewing batch #2 tomorrow or Sunday. I’ll let the first batch sit until at least next weekend, which should give me a little bit of time to make some more empties too.
[quote=“ChuckVug”]I think the first batch lends to impatience. we want to get the first batch done, so we can taste the success. I wasn’t planning to go with carboys for secondary, but the local brew shop guy convinced the mrs it was the way to go. Not a big deal to me, but keeping the mrs happy with the process always makes it more likely to be successful long term. She also seems to think bottling may end up being a waste of time, so a kegging system may be in the works if it plays out well.
Picking up a second bucket today, and hopefully brewing batch #2 tomorrow or Sunday. I’ll let the first batch sit until at least next weekend, which should give me a little bit of time to make some more empties too.
:cheers: [/quote]
Yea you may have jumped the gun a little on racking out off the yeast so soon but your 1.010 gravity is a good sign. In general I don’t secondary. I have a few beers that have been sitting on the cake for a couple months right now. They’ll go straight to a keg when I’m ready to drink them. They do get a shot of CO2 occasionally.
I agree with your wife regarding bottling. Good deal on kegs on ebay right now. I got a couple of these last month.
Uncle Chuck, I thought I told you to wait a minimum of 7 days to 2 weeks before racking off the primary! It’ll probably turn out just fine. I’ll let you know how my first kegging adventure goes this weekend.
It seems to me there is a bit of a learning curve to figuring out when a beer is ready for the next step be it secondary, bottling, or kegging. I’ll give him extra credit for checking his specific gravity ON HIS FIRST BEER. Way ahead of where I was with my first kit. Without a hydrometer as a beginner, it’s like sailing without charts.
Regarding kegging, I’ve decided 2016 will be the “year of the keg”, as I want to work on improving my general brewing skills(first lager Sunday) this year before adding the keg variable.
Yeah, but that was after I racked it, I think. next batch will sit a little longer. The kit instructions said to transfer to secondary “as soon as the fermentation slows” and “BEFORE the fermentation ends”, so trying to follow the recipe, too.
For the record, it’s still bubbling in the secondary, so it should be fine to sit for a couple weeks now.
2nd batch (48 hours this afternoon) still not showing signs of any steady bubbling. Not sure what is going on there.
Yeah, but that was after I racked it, I think. next batch will sit a little longer. The kit instructions said to transfer to secondary “as soon as the fermentation slows” and “BEFORE the fermentation ends”, so trying to follow the recipe, too.
For the record, it’s still bubbling in the secondary, so it should be fine to sit for a couple weeks now.
2nd batch (48 hours this afternoon) still not showing signs of any steady bubbling. Not sure what is going on there.[/quote]
Seems like a different recipe, as I think most people wouldn’t remove it from the yeast cake while it’s still fermenting. Was it a kit from here? The directions are fine and a good place to start, but eventually you’ll learn little things that help and aren’t in the directions.
As for your second batch, give it some time. What kind of yeast did you use and what is the beer you’re making? Did you make a starter?
[quote=“Templar”]Seems like a different recipe, as I think most people wouldn’t remove it from the yeast cake while it’s still fermenting. Was it a kit from here? The directions are fine and a good place to start, but eventually you’ll learn little things that help and aren’t in the directions.
As for your second batch, give it some time. What kind of yeast did you use and what is the beer you’re making? Did you make a starter?[/quote]
Both are recipe kits from a local home brew shop. First is a Blue Moon clone (tasted and smelled more like Allagash), the 2nd is a Fat Tire clone. Both Belgians but one’s a white, the other pale.
Both had a pink dry yeast packet. Prepped it in a separate pan for the 2nd with water and malt extract (per directions). The first just had me pitch the packet straight into the fermenter after taking the OG.
[quote=“ChuckVug”][quote=“Templar”]Seems like a different recipe, as I think most people wouldn’t remove it from the yeast cake while it’s still fermenting. Was it a kit from here? The directions are fine and a good place to start, but eventually you’ll learn little things that help and aren’t in the directions.
As for your second batch, give it some time. What kind of yeast did you use and what is the beer you’re making? Did you make a starter?[/quote]
Both are recipe kits from a local home brew shop. First is a Blue Moon clone (tasted and smelled more like Allagash), the 2nd is a Fat Tire clone. Both Belgians but one’s a white, the other pale.
Both had a pink dry yeast packet. Prepped it in a separate pan for the 2nd with water and malt extract (per directions). The first just had me pitch the packet straight into the fermenter after taking the OG.[/quote]
I see. I don’t use a secondary, but from what I have read/seen you don’t want to remove from the primary too soon. Use a hydrometer to ensure fermentation is complete. Secondary is more for clearing or adding some kind of other flavoring/aroma bits (dry hops, wood chips, etc). At least that’s what I’ve read. I just use the primary and let it go.
Also, do you use buckets for fermentation? Airlock bubbles aren’t the best indication of fermentation. If you use buckets, there could be a small leak and air is coming out of that instead of the airlock. If you use a carboy and see nothing (no foam, no movement, no nothing) I would give it maybe another day or so. What’s the temperature at? If it’s too cold, move it to a warmer spot. Did you oxygenate the beer before you pitched? Lots can happen that will affect how the yeast act. If you’re worried, pick up another pack of dry yeast and pitch it directly (you can rehydrate if you want to, but don’t need to).
Definitely peek inside. Hard to tell with buckets. Lots of people have no bubbles in the airlock but have good fermentations, they just don’t seal perfectly around the lids (not a problem at all though).
[/quote]
Uncle Chuck! This is the reason your fermentation was so quick. If you have 70 ambient the fermentation temperature is probably 75-76 degrees. Do you do anything to control that? Swamp cooler? Do you have stick on fermometers on your buckets to monitor ferm temps?
You may as well go ahead and change your user name to Uncle Chuck.
So if there is good evidence of the kreuzen, assume there is no issue with the fermentation?
If there’s no evidence, pitch a new pack of yeast?
Room temperature is 68-70.
[/quote]
Uncle Chuck! This is the reason your fermentation was so quick. If you have 70 ambient the fermentation temperature is probably 75-76 degrees. Do you do anything to control that? Swamp cooler? Do you have stick on fermometers on your buckets to monitor ferm temps?
You may as well go ahead and change your user name to Uncle Chuck.[/quote]
That makes sense. I’ll make sure to keep it cooler. Thought I had read to keep it fermenting in an ambient temp of 68-70. Must have read that wrong. Need to prep my space yet for a swamp cooler. May not need it in the basement, which is likely 5-10 degrees cooler.
