So i did my 2nd AG last night.

[jhenderson27]

So a quick recap, my first AG was successful just not perfect to say the least. I had a stainless manifold and just couldn't get it to run clear and didn't get the best temps and ended up with a gravity off a bit. Needless its gonna be a good porter with a 3.8 abv. O well. So I went back to lowes and updated my current 52qt igloo with a custom cpvc manifold with equal spaced slits around. Perfect fitting and good flow. So I shot to mash in with my APA at 153 and hit 150/149 so I gave it some extra time and then sparged at 168 perfectly. I ended up with a preboil of 1.032 with 6.75g. I then busted out the new turkey fryer and started my boil as usual. So at the end I got a little too much boil off to 4.5g and a og of 1.043/.044 shooting for 1.046. Ill take it. I pitched nottingham after a good rehydrate and slow temp increase to sort temp. Finished at 11pm and by 7:30 this morning I have good fermentation. Just wanted to share my happiness as all the advise I get from here rocks.

 

[jhenderson27]

Oh yah 71% efficency too. Im stoked about it. Ill work to get better but im happy.

 

[jhenderson27]

Fermentation was vigorous for 2.5days and has slowed. Will rack to secondary to dry hop if og is right. Ill use 1oz cascade leafs for 10 days.

 

[bgruis]

Just a thought about racking to secondary.

You want to make sure you get back to back stable gravity readings before you rack to secondary. (ie....on tuesday your gravity was 1.012 and it stayed the same on wednesday). That is the only true indication that fermenation is complete.

While I've never done it personally I don't think there would be a problem dry hopping in the primary. In other words, just skip the secondary, save yourself the hassle and potential contamination of moving the beer, let it chill in primary for another 10 days the keg or bottle.

 

[jhenderson27]

I definatly take multiple gravitys over a few days. I clean well and have a specific fermenter for secondary. Its coming open from my 10% madagascar vanilla bean porter.

 

[RM-MN]

Don't rush it to secondary. That yeast cake at the bottom of your primary will do wonderful things to the flavor of your beer if you give it some time. At the end of next week you can drop your hops right into the fermenter and let them sit for at least a week, then bottle or keg. Want more hop aroma? If you keg, you can put a nylon mesh bag with the hops in it right into the keg. I've tasted some done that way and WOW!, I'm impressed.

 

[flabyboy]

Since you mashed at a little lower temp than recommended you may find your FG goes lower than what you anticipated. Leave it on the yeast cake for at least 2 weeks

 

[jhenderson27]

If fermentation stops its stopped though right. What's the point of sitting on it if nothing more is gonna come of it. I have all the time im just wondering how it will be beneficial.

 

[flabyboy]

If fermentation stops its stopped though right. What's the point of sitting on it if nothing more is gonna come of it. I have all the time im just wondering how it will be beneficial.

Your yeast will actually clean up some of the byproducts and off flavors they produced after fermentation is done. How many days has it been on the yeast?

A lot of people just leave it in the primary the whole time. You can dry hop in the primary as well. Leaving it there will prevent unneeded risk from infection or oxygenation while transferring to secondary. I have been leaving my beer in primary for 3-4 weeks and have had better results than when I transferred to secondary

There are hundreds of threads on this forum that address this very issue

 

[jhenderson27]

Im giving your idea a try. Dropped the leaf hops in the primary last night. Check back in 2 weeks.