My first day as AHA member and also 7 days into my first all-grain batch. It is a double nut brown. Target OG was 1.073 (I hit 1.067) and target FG is 1.016 (at seven days I’m at 1.027). Supposed to be a 7-day primary ferment and then 14-day secondary. My question : can I rack to keg now and use that as my secondary fermentation vessel? If so, how does at work?
Thanks and so excited to be the newest AHA member.
I do not recommend racking until it is done.
When is it done? It is done when sample measure the same a couple of days apart. Racking too early is a tough problem to fix. You could end up with residual sugars or off flavors.
Beer doesn’t know what a day is, so be careful following recipes with days. Those should be taken as guidelines.
You don’t need to secondary, you could package right out of primary, just ensure it is done.
You never want to rack a beer before it is finished fermenting. Racking a beer early could cause it to stall. Also, general consensus here is secondary is usually not necessary. Finish the beer in the primary, let sit a few days after fermentation appears to be finished to let yeast clean up any off flavors and then cold crash in primary to drop yeast. Then you can rack to keg.
Welcome to the forum!
As the others said, don’t rack it. Leave it alone for a while. I like to watch the airlock. When the airlock quits bubbling, then take a specific gravity reading. Then wait 3 or 4 more days. Then take another gravity reading. If the gravity stays the same over 3 days, then it’s done fermenting. Otherwise, wait longer until it’s stable. Then you can safely move to your keg or bottles.
Thanks all for comments. As a side note, airlock never bubbled (or if it did, it did it while I was at work). Regardless, I’ll let sit another week and retest. -cheers!
I’m going to assume you are in a bucket and had a leak in the lid seal somewhere. You probably could fix that by pressing down on the lid tighter.
Update: so…I got froggy, and decided to test with hydrometer. The Krausen dropped after day five, I tested at days 6, 9, and 11. No change from 9 to 11 so I racked into keg, carbed to 30psi, and at day 13, I now have a wonderful Double nut brown ale with absolutely zero off-taste. My wife loves it!!! Time for a double IPA next. Thanks!!!
cool. what was your final gravity reading?