Foam

Hello
I brewed up the American Amber ale extract kit on 7/11/12 Transfered to secondary 7/20/12 and now I have a little foam on the top I noticed a couple days ago and more action in the airlock. Is this common or do I have something else going on? I was going to bottle shortly should i wait until it stops?

This is common. Moving the beer will stir up some yeast and they start consuming some sugar again. I found that I lose a couple gravity points in the secondary despite no activity in primary at transfer.
Also, there is a lot of cO2 dissolved in the beer after fermentation. Transferring/disturbing it will cause some of the CO2 to come out of suspension and make the airlock do the blub-blub dance.
As far as bottling goes, just make sure that your hydrometer readings aren’t changing before you go for it. I personally wouldn’t think about bottling until about the three week mark.
In the future you might skip the secondary altogether. It’s entirely personal preference, but many argue that it adds nothing to the beer unless you’re aging (extended aging) the beer or adding other ingredients to it. With most beers, I wait about 3 weeks, cold crash, and keg. If using a secondary, I usually wait a minimum of two weeks before transferring from primary.

Thanks for repying . First time I have noticed for foam and was nealy 2 weeks after I transfered it so it was unusal.

Is there a lot of foam? I would say take a sample, check gravity, and taste it to make sure you’re in the clear.

No not alot of foam maybe about 1/4 inch lightly across the top. Just the first one I have had do this in the secondary. And if I tasted it what would i be looking for?

Souring, funkiness, etc. Just make sure it’s not infected. Its most likely not, but if it is, it could keep fermenting in the bottle. I’m sure you’re fine though.

i had one batch that went south, fermentation :wink: resumed in ever increasing amounts beginning at week 4. when tasted that was a ever so slight vinagar taste.