New brewer here…looking for some advice/opinion. I brewed a Belgian Saison and the primary fermentation was 12 days and then I racked it to a carboy for a secondary. It’s been calm, but steady tiny bubbles for almost a month now. There is a darkish orange/brown ring around the top of the neck…I think this is normal, but how long can I expect the bubbles to continue?
What yeast and temps?
Also, what is your gravity currently at?
I typically leave my belgians/saisons in primary for longer, about 14-18 days. I believe this helps give the yeast more time to ferment completely and drop out of suspension. The brown ring you’re describing might just be yeast that had not dropped to the bottom of your primary before you racked to secondary.
Normally, I don’t see any bubbles in secondary because I try to leave my Belgian/Saison in primary until it has completely fermented (one bubble or less/minute).
I hope this helps.
There really is no need to transfer to a secondary (this is fairly outdated advice) unless one is adding other ingredients (fruit, spices/herbs, wild yeast/bacteria, oak, dry hops, etc). Leaving the beer on the primary yeast cake is really no problem up to 6 wks. Not that average beers need to be left that long, but rather a time frame for you to work from.
The issue with transferring beer to secondary too soon can leave an unfinished fermentation and excessive fermentation byproducts (diacetyl, acetaldehyde, etc) that may still need to be cleaned up the yeast.
With that being said, depending on which yeast strain you used, your beer is most likely done fermenting. The only way to really know is take a hydrometer sample and see where your Final Gravity is.
Bulk aging is another valid reason to secondary.
If you’re fermenting at ambient temperatures, the air bubbles could simply be CO2 coming out of solution as the beer gradually warms up. Seeing as we’re coming into summer, I see this as possible.
Case in point: I cold crashed my recent split batch of Best Bitter, and both “halves” dropped another point while at 33pF. Any CO2 they produced at this temp likely stayed in solution. I hauled the carboys out of the fermentation chamber to transfer the beers and they started to bubble like made. By the end of the transfer they were only at 54o, (and perfectly carbed for a best bitter, IMO.) and I was very surprised at how much they bubbled for only a 20o increase. An increase of a degree or two would result in a noticeable increase in bubbling IMO.
Thanks all for the comments. I used Wyeast Belgian Saison 3724 and the gravity was at 1.012 last time I checked on 30 May. It’s been at 72 degrees very steady. Based on your comments I may have racked it too early…how will that impact my beer?
I should probably mention I used a starter as well…no idea how many more billion yeast cells I actually pitched but I let the starter work for 24 hours before I pitched it.
Just checked the gravity: 1.007
Tastes great!
Amen. Took me way too long to learn this lesson.
Nice work! That is a great FG for 3724 in a saison, depending on your fermentables. Give it another few days and take one last gravity reading. If you are still at 1.007, the package it up!
While you are at it, brew up another batch and pitch some of the yeast slurry into the next round.