So I know we have talked about skipping the secondary on this blog. For the most part, we follow our own advice. For lagers, I tend to not follow that advice and I do rack to a secondary vessel to give the beer some time to condition.
This time around, it had another purpose. I needed some time between primary fermentation and bottling because I have to clean and sanitize some bottles. This secondary phase will give me some time to do that while the beer is chilling out.
So I prepared a carboy and racked the California Common on Tuesday night. I checked the gravity and was surprised to see that it was giving me a 1.008 reading. I had expected a final gravity reading of 1.012, so the yeast really did their thing and then some.
The starting gravity was a little higher than expected, probably around 1.052. I was shooting for a 1.050 but no harm there.
I put the carboy in the beer fridge and I have been slowly reducing the temperature over the last few days. I think we are sitting at 45°F right now and we started at 60°F. By the weekend, it will be down to 35°F and I will let it stay there for a week or so.
jim
I hope it turns out good! I’ll check back to find out!
John
Thanks Jim. I need to start the bottle process tonight.
Hestor
Last week, I attempted to make a Cali-Common. That style came to an abrupt halt when I realized my Wyeast had failed. It was an old packet and it didn’t expand when I smacked it (also made a starter). I got nervous after a day of no activity so I contacted my brew store and he told me to pitch something in there ASAP. I picked up an American Ale yeast and pitched it directly in the primary. There was excellent activity for a few days and now it seems the yeast is done its job. There is a lot of yeast in there now (dead and dormant), so, should I rack to a secondary ASAP or just leave it in the primary for another week or two and bottle from there?
How’s your beer coming along?
John
I would just let it lie.