For the secondary, is everyone using a 5 gallon or is there a second round of krausen from the honey and cider?
Looks to me like the apples just have some yeast/krausen mud on em, should be fine.
7 days seems to be a good average point to where the CO2 out of the air lock calms down. I always wait for the main off-gassing of CO2 to stop before racking into secondary. Shouldn't get much krausening in the 2ndary, but always be ready with some racking tube and a pitcher half full of water as a blow-off valve just in case.
Took a grav reading today. Brew'd on the 18th, OG: 1.083, and am at 1.040 five days later. WL001 fermenting at an average of 65'f. If you've been brewing since the 14th, you might be ready for a 2ndary racking, but its not a do or die. Some people don't even use a 2ndary.
LHBS guy suggested leaving everything, apples and all, in the primary and adding the honey and cider on top of what's already in the primary. Is there any benefit to racking off the apples? I can't rack this to a 5 gallon carboy since it's 5 gallons of wort, plus 1/2 gallon of cider, and the honey. It won't fit in a 5 gallon. Also, he thinks the fermentation is going to roar with all the honey.
Thoughts, suggestions, comments, concerns?
wow crazy. so are you thinking it's better to just keep the beer in the 6 gallon primary rather than racking to 5 gallon secodary when throwing in the cider/honey?
Looking good JTK.
I racked to 2ndary fermenter at 6 days. (it just worked out that way due to my schedule). I left out the apples in the 2ndary, and racked the beer onto the 1/2 gallon of cider. Taste was really still too sweet and gingery for me. I'm sure time will fix this as fermentation continues. She's still bubbling the airlock a few times a minute.
Side note, I did take a bite out of one of the apples at day 6, and their sugars were gone. It was like eating starch, w/ green apple skin on the outside. Crazy!
Good Malt/Ginger/Cinnamon and Apple nose for sure, its all there sofar.
Fermenting off the honey/cider shouldn't take 4 weeks at temps between 60-65'f (room temps). I was at 1.040 when I racked the beer into 2ndary onto the cider. Just checked it this am, 4 days later, I'm at 1.048. Cider added some sugars for sure, and with it, ABV! Tasted the sample I used for the refractometer. I'm not sure what it is, but its got a wierd taste to it still...hoping it ferments/ages out. Maybe its too much ginger? Smells great, but its just got a weird tinge' to it.
My plan is to let it continue to age/ferment until a week before xMas. Then I'll keg to carbonate. May bottle off some from the keg too.
Mine has been fermenting around 66-68*. We have an 8 month old and keep the house a bit warmer, that and my wife says she's cold when it's 69-71...If tinge means a kind of spicy taste, it probably is the ginger. I'm hoping that steeping a tea rather than putting it in the boil will keep the strong taste of the ginger and the clove under control. I haven't tasted a sample of this yet since I couldn't get one before adding the honey and cider. Maybe I'll give the secondary fermentation a week to 10 days and then check the gravity and give it a taste.
JTK, did you end up moving to secondary then?
I ended up just adding the cider to primary, as you had done, as i only had a 5 gallon for secondary. Glad I did not too since adding the cider brings it up to 5.5 and another round of Krausen has sprung up higher.
Is secondary still needed? Just wait a week for this cider addition to ferment out and then transfer? I was thinking racking off the apples to secondary would be good to let it clear up before bottling
I am thinkking the same thing. My "5-gallon" secondary definilty has some head space where could probably fit the beer and I am positive that this beer is going to need to do some clearing/settling out. Time to start thinking about the next brew
Any changes in your beer in the past few days kratzer?
I brewed this following kratzers recipe on Sunday. Within 12 hours my yeast was going at it. I am getting a bubble a second right now sitting at 72°. Trying to drop it down to 68°. I am not getting as much krausen as I had expected. I put a blow off hose on there just in case. Cant wait to move to secondary and add the honey and apple cider.
How do you calculate the ABV when adding all the other sugars in the secondary? I had an OG of 1.048.
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