My first Tripel, racked to secondary after 1 week.

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kimjongmatic

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Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the forum, as well as home brewing. I have made a Belgian Golden Strong Ale through a LHBS kit, and IMO it went pretty well. I recently brewed a Tripel through a LHBS kit also, and its instructions said to rack the wort to the secondary after one week. Now that I am reading about tripel brewing and fermentation, I see that most seem to leave it in the primary for at least 4 weeks. Did I screw myself here?
 
Probably not, but leave it in secondary for a while. Ideally you'd want to check the gravity over a few days and make sure it's stable and not moving, then give it a few more days (often at a slightly higher temp) to clean up after itself. Moving to secondary isn't really necessary in most cases, anyway. You can leave it to age in primary for several weeks with no ill effects and without the risk of oxidation from exposing it to air during the racking process.

How big is your secondary and how big is the batch (assuming 5g batch)? Don't open it at this point since it's already been exposed to O2. If the yeast is still doing anything at all the Co2 pressure should keep O2 out of headspace, but again, just leave it alone at this point until it clears.
 
tre9er said:
Probably not, but leave it in secondary for a while. Ideally you'd want to check the gravity over a few days and make sure it's stable and not moving, then give it a few more days (often at a slightly higher temp) to clean up after itself. Moving to secondary isn't really necessary in most cases, anyway. You can leave it to age in primary for several weeks with no ill effects and without the risk of oxidation from exposing it to air during the racking process.

How big is your secondary and how big is the batch (assuming 5g batch)? Don't open it at this point since it's already been exposed to O2. If the yeast is still doing anything at all the Co2 pressure should keep O2 out of headspace, but again, just leave it alone at this point until it clears.
Click to expand...

My secondary is a 5 gallon plastic carboy, and the brew is filled up to the bottom of the neck of the bottle. I haven't seen any co2 escaping the airlock since I transferred it.

So I guess from now on, I can leave my wort in the primary for weeks, and after a couple days of stable hydrometer readings I can bottle condition? Thanks for the reply by the way.
 
I've had more success with Tripels by minimizing time in primary (2-3 days of steady gravity readings with refractometer), 2 days of cold crashing, transfer to secondary and 4-5 weeks of cold conditioning.

My first Tripels with 1-2 month primaries were ok, but lacking esters. Fermentation temperature for all batches are 64f pitch, slow rise to 68f, boost a few degrees at the very end.
 
DSmith said:
I've had more success with Tripels by minimizing time in primary (2-3 days of steady gravity readings with refractometer), 2 days of cold crashing, transfer to secondary and 4-5 weeks of cold conditioning.

My first Tripels with 1-2 month primaries were ok, but lacking esters. Fermentation temperature for all batches are 64f pitch, slow rise to 68f, boost a few degrees at the very end.
Click to expand...

What does cold conditioning do for the beer? I don't really have the capabilities of doing so right now.
 
kimjongmatic said:
What does cold conditioning do for the beer? I don't really have the capabilities of doing so right now.
Click to expand...

According to the Jamil Show on Tripels, the conditioning time is for settling nucleation sites out so when carbonated there is a better chance for the fine streaming carbonation you see in commercial examples. Brew Like a Monk has many references that the commercial brewered do this settling/lagering time at cooler temperature than room temperature. I'd think time is more important than temperature in this situation, but ideally both.
 
My experience has led me to this:
A - Wait until gravity is flat for 3 days and then wait 3 more days in primary (about 2 weeks).

B - Cool to 50 F for 3 - 4 weeks

C - Bring back to 68 F and bottle OR cool to 40 and keg

I love tripels and always try to have some on hand.
 
cgg said:
My experience has led me to this:
A - Wait until gravity is flat for 3 days and then wait 3 more days in primary (about 2 weeks).

B - Cool to 50 F for 3 - 4 weeks

C - Bring back to 68 F and bottle OR cool to 40 and keg

I love tripels and always try to have some on hand.
Click to expand...

Is there transfer between A & B?
 

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