Question regarding the secondary

[osu6251]

I just brewed my first extract batch. It is an Amber and the OG was 1.055. After 7 days in primary I was down to less than one bubble per min and had a gravity reading of 1.015 (which is what Beersmith had recommended as a FG). Transferred to secondary carboy, it is now day four, and I am getting an air bubble approx every 30 sec......two questions:

Could this be a renewed activity of fermentation, or is this part of the clarification process?

The beer appears to be clearing but from the bottom up. Does it usually clear in this manner?

Thanks!!

 

[JLem]

Could still be fermentation taking place, could be off gassing CO2 from being moved (though after 4 days I wouldn't expect this) or from an increased temp (did you move it somewhere warmer?). Definitely not part of the clarification process.

Not sure about the clearing from the bottom up. Usually things clear from the top down since the process involved particles settling out.

BTW, in the future, I would recommend skipping the secondary vessel for these sorts of straight-forward ales. Just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks then bottle/keg. Going to secondary is only really necessary if you are adding something like fruit or oak or dry hops or if you are going to bulk age a beer for a while. Otherwise, it is unnecessary and will just increase your chance of contamination and/or oxidation.

 

[mhenry41h]

I have good luck using a secondary as a bright tank. My tripel was very cloudy with yeast that hadn't flocced out so I racked it. Lo and behold, two hours later I had a big nearly pure yeast cake on the bottom. I wasn't going to reuse it, but it's a pretty clean sample of 3787 so I might now...

 

[osu6251]

Could still be fermentation taking place, could be off gassing CO2 from being moved (though after 4 days I wouldn't expect this) or from an increased temp (did you move it somewhere warmer?). Definitely not part of the clarification process.

Not sure about the clearing from the bottom up. Usually things clear from the top down since the process involved particles settling out.

BTW, in the future, I would recommend skipping the secondary vessel for these sorts of straight-forward ales. Just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks then bottle/keg. Going to secondary is only really necessary if you are adding something like fruit or oak or dry hops or if you are going to bulk age a beer for a while. Otherwise, it is unnecessary and will just increase your chance of contamination and/or oxidation.

The secondary temperature had been consistent at 73 degrees. Is this too warm, should it be moved to a cooler location like the garage for the remainder?

I have read quite a bit about not using a secondary for the reasons you mentioned. Will the beer still clarify and clear if just left in the primary?

 

[kgraber]

Yes, it will clear if left in the primary.

 

[mhenry41h]

Yes, it will clear if left in the primary.

I think so too, but it doesn't clear as quickly for me unless I do use a secondary. The way I look at it is this: if you are careful not to splash your beer around and you are good with sanitization, you won't have problems.

 

[Revvy]

Yes, it will clear if left in the primary.

+1, my beer's clearer having opted for long primaries.

I get little if any sediment in my bottles, simply by opting for a long primary. This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.

That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. Note how clear it is, there's little if any floaties in there.

When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.

This is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.

Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.

 

[mhenry41h]

I do very long primaries so perhaps I'm just confusing the quick dropout in secondary with a nice benefit of a long primary. My tripel just went 4 weeks in primary.