Dumb question for some one.
I just went to a secondary on my first batch. I had dry irish stout in primary only 5 days (absolutely zero activity the last day). I had pitched a dry yeast originally. I poured this yeast with small amount of beer from bottom of glass carboy into a container.
Can I use this for anything?
Yes, if you sanitized the container you put it in. If with in 2-3 weeks, pitch 1/2 of the slurry into your next beer.
The only real way to tell if the beer is done fermentation is to take 2-3 hydrometer reading over 2-4 days. If they are the same it is finished. It never hurts the beer to leave it in the primary for 10 days or longer. There are some undesirable byproducts made on occasion that the yeast will “clean up” with a longer time in the beer.
It is perfectly acceptable to leave it in the primary for 3 weeks and then go straight to bottles or kegs.
Nighthawk, thanks for the info.
There was only a small airlock bubble between 2 and 3 minutes with a flat surface with no foam. Only a little kraeusen. I took a reading before transfering to secondary. The abv was about 2.
Wait your ABV was 2%??!!
I forgot to check original abv which should have been about 5.5 to 6 abv per the kit (1.042 O. G.) subtract 2 would be about 3.5 to 4 if the beer does not change any more.
Oh phew! I have the same thing brewing. I was about to go dump the #ucker down the toilet! LOL
What was your original reading?
I used water that had gone through a water softner on that batch.
This batch I am using regular hard tap water which is supposed to have calcium left in it which is supposed to help the yeast.
1.042. Oh so your brewing another batch of the irish stout? I missed that detail in the thread.
No, this batch is American Amber Ale.
