Rack to Secondary?

[Stevesauer]

Hello all. I know the question has been asked hundreds of times, but I believe this situation is a little unique. I brewed a watermelon wheat and used the meat of the fruit. My grain bill was 5 lbs of 2 row pale malt and 4 lbs crushed white wheat. I was shooting for a starting gravity of around 1.045. I ended up with 1.065. Obviously, I added too much melon. After 5 days in primary my gravity is at 1.010, giving me an abv of 7.2% . That's already way north of where I wanted to be. I don't want abv to climb higher. The krauesen bas receded and I'm not seeing any visible signs of fermentation. That may be in part because I'm using 3/8 id tube in the grommet of my ale pail. My question is can I transfer to secondary? Will doing so cause some of those flavors observed in the intermediate stages of alcohol formation to remain?

 

[two_one_seven]

What yeast did you use? If it is in the FG range for it then you can move it. Another option is to do a gravity reading 3 days in a row. If you don't see any change then you can move.

Another thought is not to move it just let it clear and bottle or keg from there. A lot of folks on here only use a secondary if the are dry hopping or adding fruit.

Hope this helps.

 

[Stevesauer]

What yeast did you use? If it is in the FG range for it then you can move it. Another option is to do a gravity reading 3 days in a row. If you don't see any change then you can move.

Another thought is not to move it just let it clear and bottle or keg from there. A lot of folks on here only use a secondary if the are dry hopping or adding fruit.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info! I have noticed many on here are skipping the secondary. I forgot to mention the yeast type, as you asked. Wlp001 is what I used.

 

[paperairplane]

What's the point of secondary? With 4# of wheat you're not looking for clarity, didn't see you're adding anything... let it be.

 

[Stevesauer]

What's the point of secondary? With 4# of wheat you're not looking for clarity, didn't see you're adding anything... let it be.

My main thing was to get the beer off the trub in an attempt to keep the abv from rising any further since I so grossly overshot my starting gravity.

 

[Yooper]

My main thing was to get the beer off the trub in an attempt to keep the abv from rising any further since I so grossly overshot my starting gravity.

But the yeast don't know that- and they won't know if the beer is in a different fermenter. The yeast will ferment until they are finished- you don't control that by racking.

 

[Stevesauer]

But the yeast don't know that- and they won't know if the beer is in a different fermenter. The yeast will ferment until they are finished- you don't control that by racking.

That's why I'm glad there is such a knowledge base here. I was under the impression that since the yeast had settled, if I rack the beer off the top, I would leave the yeast behind, stopping abv from further increase. Learned something new.

 

[jekeane]

I wouldn't imagine it going to much lower at this point... You could lower the temperature if you are using a fermentation chamber to try and slow down the yeast even more until bottling/kegging day.

 

[Yooper]

That's why I'm glad there is such a knowledge base here. I was under the impression that since the yeast had settled, if I rack the beer off the top, I would leave the yeast behind, stopping abv from further increase. Learned something new.

Well, it's true that you would leave some yeast behind, but there are literally hundreds of billions of yeast in suspension, even in a very clear beer. If your beer is a bit cloudy, and you've used a non-flocculant yeast, the yeast are even more numerous and would definitely not be the least impacted or inconvenienced by moving to a new fermenter.

That's probably a good thing, even if a lower ABV is desired, as it means that there will be no bottle bombs in the future if the yeast is finished before bottling!

A 1.065 OG beer is definitely into the higher ABV category. When it's finished, you can calculate the actual ABV. It probably won't go much lower, if any at all, than it is right now at 1.010. Sort of high ABV for a watermelon wheat, but it might still be really tasty!

 

[Stevesauer]

Yea, definitely high for a watermelon wheat! Too much melon in the wort. Doh! Won't make that mistake again. I'll just leave it in primary til kegging time. Thanks!