I am currently brewing an IPA. I am two weeks in and I will be transferring to a secondary on monday. First part of the question is I have hops still floating on top but the foam has subsided. Is that still considered the krausen? Secondly, when I tranfer should I suck that into the secondary also, wait for it to fall completely out, or don't rack it over?
2 part question
- Thread starter shaggy727
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kombat
Well-Known Member
No. Floating hop bits, CO2, and yeast rafts are normal and are not considered "krausen."
If you must rack, I would rack from beneath those items and try to leave them behind. That said, I wouldn't rack to secondary at all unless you have a good reason.
What's your reason for wishing to rack to a secondary vessel?
My reasons to rack include conditioning the beer, getting it off the trub and yeast cake, allowing more sediment to fall out for a clearer beer, and finishing the flavor while not getting flavors from dead yeast. My fermentation has slowed to a crawl as of now. I will be dry hopping in another week. I understand contamination risks and sanitize everything. Sanitation is the main reason I have heard for not using a secondary. While off flavors from dead yeast seem to be a major reason for me to rack.
Honestly, you should wait until the krausen completely drops and final gravity is reached, then dry hop for 5-7 days in primary and then bottle, that would be my course of action. You can also cold crash the beer after dry hopping if you like but it's not necessary.
Once the dry hop period is complete place a nylon or hop sack over the racking cane as a filter and siphon into bottling bucket. If you rack with the cane filter and don't suck up the trub your beer will be great!
Once the dry hop period is complete place a nylon or hop sack over the racking cane as a filter and siphon into bottling bucket. If you rack with the cane filter and don't suck up the trub your beer will be great!
feinbera
Well-Known Member
You don't need to worry about dead yeast unless you're staying in primary for more than a month. "get it off the yeast as soon as possible" is old advice from the days when your yeast would spend months/years taped to the bottom of a can of extract on a hot, dusty shelf and nobody understood good temperature control. It's still an issue for commercial brewers, where the yeast is compressed into the bottom of a conical fermenter with hundreds or thousands gallons of beer bearing down on it, but in a nice, even layer at the bottom of a five gallon bucket after a fresh pitch and a healthy ferment, there's no rush to rack, at least not on account of your yeast.
Everything you WANT and nothing you DON'T want will happen by leaving it in the primary until it's finished. As for dry hopping you can do that in the primary as well w/no loss of anything. Measure your hops, make a funnel out of a sheet of paper, pot out the air lock and pour in the hops. Then replace the air lock and all is well. That dead yeast off flavor business is an "old brewer's tale" as far as modern yeasts are concerned.
