Ok so my first brew has been fermenting away for the last 5.5 days. It now bubbles like once a minute or so. Is that a good thing or a bad thing or is it different for every beer. How do I properly transfer my brew from the primary to the secondary carboy and why is it necessary? Also Can the brew be exposed to oxygen during the transfer?
Primary to Secondary
- Thread starter Chuckrox8
- Start date
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It probaly is ready to transfer over but let it sit for a couple days if you dont have a hydrometer. If you do have one check the gravity and then check it again in 2 days . . . the 2 readings shoul be very close and they ya know it's ready to move. So yeah . . .let it sit for 2 more days
To transfer it to the primary all ya need to do is siphon it and your good to go. try not to splash it around much and you shouldnt have to worry about O2 ruining it. Is a secondary neccesary? nope All a secondary really does it allow more yeast to setle out of your beer and improve the clarity, while at the same time allowing your beer to age a bit and allow the flavors to mellow and blend together.
I'm getting very tempted to start a campaign to ban the term "secondary fermentor" and replace it with "clearing carboy" or something, it causes too much confussion to the new brewers
To transfer it to the primary all ya need to do is siphon it and your good to go. try not to splash it around much and you shouldnt have to worry about O2 ruining it. Is a secondary neccesary? nope All a secondary really does it allow more yeast to setle out of your beer and improve the clarity, while at the same time allowing your beer to age a bit and allow the flavors to mellow and blend together.
I'm getting very tempted to start a campaign to ban the term "secondary fermentor" and replace it with "clearing carboy" or something, it causes too much confussion to the new brewers
DeadYetiBrew
Well-Known Member
First, you might want to give it a full 7 days before transferring. Secondary is for clearing the beer and little to no fermentation occurs. You want to minimize oxygenating the beer during the transfer and you need to use sterilized tubing...
SteveM
Well-Known Member
Pumbaa said:
Agree - I've taken to using the term "second stage" (and "third stage") when it applies.
And to Chuck's original question - you will gain little at any point in the process if you try to hurry things along. Almost nothing bad comes from taking (or allowing) a little extra time at any point.
IowaStateFan
Well-Known Member
You've got that backwards. The autosiphon is really just a pump that gets the siphon started. Connect the tubing to the autosiphon, and place the loose end of the tubing in the "clearing carboy". Put the autosiphon into your fermentor and give it a couple of pumps to start the siphon. The clearing carboy must be lower than the fermentor.
Fiery Sword
Well-Known Member
I think this would really help a lot of n00bs better understand the process and what they are doing. I could not agree more.Pumbaa said:
ColoradoXJ13
Well-Known Member
cwb124 said:
x2 on that, mine was $15 but as soon as this one craps out, I will replace it, makes racking much less painful, almost painless except for the waiting...
I just call my secondary a secondary, as in secondary carboy....seems to make sense.
So it's ok if I take the lid of my fermentor off? I'm trying to screw this up as least as possible. So I sanitize my auto-siphon and tubing, put the bulb glass end into the fermentor, attach the tubing, put the tubing into my carboy (which will be sitting on the floor below the primary), give it a few pumps, wait for it all to siphon into the carboy, pop the airlock on and wait a couple more weeks?
rod
beer -just brew it
yes it is ok to take the lid off for the transfer to secondary
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