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Okay, now I know you're all probably sick to death of questions regarding racking , but I did a search for my problem and didn't really find anything that answered it properly. Did my first rack today, so unsure if i'm being paranoid or not. Put down a Kilkenny clone last Thursday. It had a SG of 1048. By today, airlock activity had really slowed down. Took a hydrometer reading that indicated brew was at 1018. The HBS advised me to rack when Primary ferment was approx 3/4 done, so rack I did. It's been in the secondary fermenter a few hours now, and it's bubbling away at a very steady rate, more than what it was before I racked. So, is this normal? Do I have anything to worry about? What would cause the fermentation to 'fire up' again? Cheers,

MattyV

Thats ok Matty, my brews always take off again after racking. Its because your yeasts are stirred up again, and then chew up any/or most available fermentables.

Everythings online by the sounds of it with your brew.

Makesure you dont rack any earlier than what you have. I would even wait till all airlock activity has stopped, or your primary has done all it can, rather than 3/4's finished. Youll find your brew will still kick off in secondary. This brings down your beer another couple of points on the hydrometer, and guarantees a clearer, fully fermented brew before bottling or kegging.

on the same note if you rack when fermentation has stopped completely you risk having it not kick off again in secondary then having it sit there with a nice wad of normal air (02 and N) above it rather than a nice, anti-infection CO2 layer.
I usually rack when fermentation slows but hasn't quite stopped but I guess it all works anyways.

No problems with what you've decribed matty, let us know if it's any good and throw us the recipie if it is!

Thanks Paleman & Simo. I thought that might be the case, with the yeasties getting stirred up and becoming active again. Does this new activity in the brew mean that another trub/yeast cake may develop? And if so, is this a problem leaving it in secondary for 2 weeks?

I do what Paleman said, only without any measuring

MattyV wrote:Thanks Paleman & Simo. I thought that might be the case, with the yeasties getting stirred up and becoming active again. Does this new activity in the brew mean that another trub/yeast cake may develop? And if so, is this a problem leaving it in secondary for 2 weeks?

You will get a little tiny trub, just a tad.

You wont have the hard line around the top of your fermenter to clean off.

When you bottle, its best to get someone to help you. The second person tips the fermenter, so all liquor is drawn off the trub, without wasting any, and without drawing any trub into your bottles......only something two people can do.

A good woman is usually best for this job !!

Ok, thanks! So I'm assuming this small amout of trub will not produce the off, yeasty tastes if left on it for a while, that we want to avoid by racking in the first place?

Definately not Matty.

If you have no trub at all, that means your yeast is dead. You need some trub. Thats what homebrew is all about.

You need some of this trub to carry over into your bottles. Its yeast that makes secondary conditioning possible. Without it, homebrew would not exist.

Racking to secondary is corrupting some new brewers minds.......you need carry over. Suspended yeastys carry over from primary to secondary.

We have to understand that we need some yeast in our racked brew, then into our bottles.......otherwise nothing happens.

Look at Coopers Ale products.......sediment.......carry over into the bottle........cant do without sediment. Homebrew heartbeat !!

Is there a new definition of trub that I was not aware of?

To me, trub is the hot and cold break material, not the yeast cake.

Much of the trub will be already broken down during primary, and transfer to 2ndary would be unlikely.

Well Chris, I think you're sort of right and wrong at the same time. According to John Palmer's 'How to brew' book, Trub is defined as:

"The sediment at the bottom of the fermenter consisting of hot and cold break material, hop bits and dead yeast."

That definition, to me, pretty much describes the yeast cake that sits at the bottom of the fermenter. Anyone else have any theory on this? Here's the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.howtobrew.com/glossary.html

Cheers!

MattyV

I'm thinking like Chris. Trub is the protien and I s'pose possibly dead yeast, but excludes the dormant yeast which has settled out and is waiting to go back to work (yeast cake).

Matty, you're quoted definition does not account for dormant yeast.

In a secondary I expect to get a thin yeastcake as the yeast goes to sleep, but no protien.[/u]

Racked my brew on sunday at about 10.30am. Because i have been too friken busy i wont be able to bulk prime and bottle until tomor morn (friday). Will this matter? I read that it should be primed and bottled after 4 days in the second rig and friday will be the 5th day.

Cheers, Kippo.

Paleman, i'll go one step further, and say:

Why bother Racking?


I hardly ever rack, and my beers are always crystal clear.
(Unless im shaking the bottle and being silly)

I dont like waiting for ages for carbonation. I dont like the extra effort. I dont like loosing ANY beer in the racking process.

Sediment is good. Embrace it.

and Kippo, your beer will be fine in the secondary for weeks and weeks

I recon racking is well worth it. And I've never had a problem with them carbonating.

As I stated in another post, I racked a beer for 6 months and it was fine.

worth it in the sense of less sediment?

Or a better flavour?

I havent seen any flavour benefits from racking.

Maybe my tasting skills arent up tp scratch yet. Thats a possibility. Im going to try it a few more times, because you guys cant all be wrong...

It's not just the clarity. It rouses the yeast, giving a greater resolution of the remaining fermentables. This (in my opinion) gives a better flavour. It also allows some of the more volitile by-products (weird esters etc) to bubble off- again a flavour issue. You get the beer off the hot/cold break material. You also can dry hop for aroma.

Im about to put down a Coopers Sparkling Ale. If i was to rack which i havnt done before would i rack say day 4? Just do the usual clean and sterilise all the equipment. And when its in the secound fermenter how long do i leave that for? And with bulk priming do i just use 500gms of Dextrose and desolve that in 500mls of hot water and add to the brew when im ready to bottle?? IS this ok or are there other methods?

I haven't done this yet. I'm about to do my first bulk prime and bottle in the next couple of days, but I think 180g for about 23L is the right amount.
500g in 23L will give you 22g/L, almost 4 times what is recommended for lagers (ales are supposed to have less). I'll have to check my sources, but I think if you go ahead as you have said, you'll be making grenades...