Clearing beer

[coldbrewnoob]

Question: had wort 1.052 in the primary for 9 days it just wouldnot stop bubbling. I took a reading on the 9th day and fg was 1.009. I transfered to the secondary. My main question is does the beer need to be left at room tempreture to finish and clarify or would it be just as good to cold crash it now? Ive only cold crashed one beer before? But is 10 days too soon to clear up a beer and get ready to bottle?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

You can't use time to figure out when to package. What you need to do it take a couple of gravity readings a few days apart. If they are the same then you are good to go. If they are still dropping then you still have fermentation going on.

 

[coldbrewnoob]

Thanks, I do understand time is not a major factor, however i forgot to mention that the wort finally stopped bubbling on the 8th day and so im pretty sure its at terminal gravity. Im sorta wondering if yeast is still doing some clean-up hence leaving it in the fermenter at room temp, or cold crashing to clear it and just bottle condition. I will take another reading in a minute. I was expecting 1.10-1.012 on fg.

This has been an odd brew as i did a couple a couple things differently. First, i pitched my good size (1.7L) yeast starter us05. at full kraussen instead of decanting. This caused the yeast to go like crazy.. Because i dont own a blowoff tube set up i began cooling my wort in an ice bath dropping tempreture from 70f down to about 54F to slow down yeast. It worked then about 3.5 days took a reading and it was at 1.035 so i let it warm to room tempreture.

The reason for making a starter on dry yeast was it was out of date, but only a few weeks, didnt want to risk it being dead.

 

[ChelisHubby]

The lack of bubbles does not mean it is done unless they are say 90 seconds apart or so. and that is only with a tightly sealed fermenter. Most buckets are not that tight.

 

[joshesmusica]

This has been an odd brew as i did a couple a couple things differently. First, i pitched my good size (1.7L) yeast starter us05. at full kraussen instead of decanting. This caused the yeast to go like crazy.. Because i dont own a blowoff tube set up i began cooling my wort in an ice bath dropping tempreture from 70f down to about 54F to slow down yeast. It worked then about 3.5 days took a reading and it was at 1.035 so i let it warm to room tempreture.

those poor yeasties and those temperature swings you put them through!
next time start out with some kind of temp control, even if it is a swamp cooler or something of the sort. a lot of people will mention temp control as one of the most important factors of making good beer, but what they fail to mention is that major temp swings are the actual problem.

also, start researching the use of secondary ferment vessels. most people scratch that whole thing nowadays except for a few specific circumstances.

as mentioned, never go by bubbles for fermentation. gravity readings are the only way to know, and then, when you know you're at FG, you want to taste it (drink the gravity reading). if no off flavors are present, it's a green light to package (bottle or keg).

 

[coldbrewnoob]

those poor yeasties and those temperature swings you put them through!
next time start out with some kind of temp control, even if it is a swamp cooler or something of the sort. a lot of people will mention temp control as one of the most important factors of making good beer, but what they fail to mention is that major temp swings are the actual problem.

also, start researching the use of secondary ferment vessels. most people scratch that whole thing nowadays except for a few specific circumstances.

as mentioned, never go by bubbles for fermentation. gravity readings are the only way to know, and then, when you know you're at FG, you want to taste it (drink the gravity reading). if no off flavors are present, it's a green light to package (bottle or keg).

Thanks for replying. I always use temp contol of some sort. I can maintain a few degrees. Had i left my wort at 68-70 i would still be cleaning up the mess. My current metheod is an icechest that holds my bucket with about 6 inches of water cooled to what ever temp i deem necessary. Substitute various size frozen bottles to achive and keep my temp,

I seem to like the secondary as way of removing sediment and excess yeast making it easier to bottle later, and have been reading about a lot of people skipping the secondary. Its all good.

Ps. Checked the gravity its still 1.009 as it has been for last 2 days. Think im going to cold crash it