Greetings Fellow Brewers,
I’ve had my 1st IPA in the fermenter now for 6 full days. Good temp control and very active yeast (Safale US-05 dry) so far it’s gone from 1.063 to 1.012. It’s still moving gas thru the airlock and the gravity is still dropping. When do I declare victory and keg it, or do I condition it in a secondary?
It still looks like chicken soup.
Will it clarify where it is or is the secondary recommended?
Thanks in advance, Steve
The only way to really know if it’s done is to check a gravity reading for a couple of consecutive days to see if it changes. I would just let it ride for another 4-5 days, cold crash for a few days, then keg. No need to secondary. Are you going to dry hop?
Not going to dry hop. The recipe called for 8 oz total hops. I think I’m going to stick with that…
First, congrats-
There’s really no need to transfer it to a secondary. That’s old advice that has been debunked in the past few years. However, do give it time to clear and for the yeast to post-process the fermentation byproducts that are still in the beer. For most batches, that takes about 2 weeks.
The key thing to remember is that the yeast work on their schedule, not yours, and even if the airlock activity has essentially stopped, there is still stuff going on that you can’t see.
If you remain patient and give them the time that they need, you will be amply rewarded.
HTH-