What am I looking for

[ejdischer]

Hi, I racked my slightly brownish/red Oatmeal Stout into a secondary about 10 days ago. Since then it has turned jet black. What am I looking for before bottling? How long should I let it clear for? When you guys rack into your secondary, what determines when you bottle? The gravity has been the same 1.011 for about five days.

 

[covered95]

Many folks use the 1-2-3 method. A week in primary, two additional weeks in secondary and then three more weeks in the bottle. these are guidelines only, but a good way to know when to do what.

 

[WOP31]

The secondary is for clearing purposes only. So it is up to your discretion on how long you want to leave it in there. I tend to allow my stouts and bigger beers a long time in the secondary for aging reasons (about a month or two depending on the OG). There is less temptation to go and drink it. I find that they benefit from the extra time aging in bulk. You should be fine to bottle now and then allow sufficient time for aging/conditioning in the bottles.


Cheers

 

[Yooper]

If it went from brownish/red to jet black, that means alot of junk has dropped out, and your beer is clearing nicely. It looks darker once the yeasts begin to finish its work and drop out of suspension. I'd wait another week (or longer if you want) and then bottle it up! Like Wop said, it can use the extra time to really be at its peak flavor but you won't harm it by bottling anytime. You should see a pretty decent layer of trub on the bottom now, that WAS in the beer when you transferred it. Just rack from above it into your bottling bucket, being careful not to stir it up and re-suspend it.