[BDJ1311]

I am brewing the Northern Brewer Plinian Legacy kit (extract). I moved my beer from the first to the second on the 19th, and dry hopped with the first set of hops. It's been pretty steady at 69-70 degrees, I was traveling for work, and just noticed that there is a small ring of foam around the top (surrounding the dry hop cap), and can see the hop particles moving up and down in the beer. Not just in a floating sense but pretty quickly, like fermentation. This is the first time I've done a dry and hop and first time I've noticed this in the secondary. My question is, did I get wild yeast in during my transfer or is this normal? I made sure to clean and sanitize everything during the transfer.

[morticaixavier]

How did you decide it was time to move to secondary?

[BDJ1311]

I waited the 2 weeks in the first, and didn't see any movement in the air lock. OG was 1.071, FG when I transferred 1.011. I've brewed a couple kits so far, but still learning a lot. 

[morticaixavier]

It's unlikely that there is a problem.

Generally, if you are going to move to secondary, you should wait till you know the fermentation is complete. You know this because two gravity readings several days apart will be the same.

That said, 1.011 sounds in line with what i would expect. I suspect there was a temp change and/or the hops provided nucleation sites for co2 bubbles so more co2 is coming out of solution.

That said, keep an eye on the gravity and if it keeps dropping it means either it wasn't done when you moved it and now it's finishing up in which case, yay! or you picked up a more attenuative yeast somewhere along the way in which case, well you'll have to wait and see, might still be yay!

Going forward, you can skip the secondary most of the time. in this  case with the pliny and the heavy dry hopping getting the beer off the yeast first can be beneficial but most of the time it's more effort for no real return and offers some rick of infection or oxidation.

[BDJ1311]

Ok, cool. Thank you for the feed back. I'll do another reading later today and see if I am still at 1.011. Greatly appreciate it!

I've read a lot of posts saying to skip the secondary. I still doing that going forward. I submitted one of my early beers into a competition (at a friends urging) just for feedback, and one of the comments was "tastes like it sat on the trub too long" which is why I moved this one (not wanting to ruin a good beer). I'll skip that in the future.

[morticaixavier]

Ok, cool. Thank you for the feed back. I'll do another reading later today and see if I am still at 1.011. Greatly appreciate it!

I've read a lot of posts saying to skip the secondary. I still doing that going forward. I submitted one of my early beers into a competition (at a friends urging) just for feedback, and one of the comments was "tastes like it sat on the trub too long" which is why I moved this one (not wanting to ruin a good beer). I'll skip that in the future.

I wouldn't put too much stock on one judges comments. We try but we are only human and make mistakes. The flavor that would be caused by too long on the yeast cake would be brothy, meaty, soy sauce like flavors and I've personally never experienced them in homebrew. Not to say it can't happen but within reason it's unlikely to happen to you.

as I said though, with a big hop driven beer like this where dry hopping it an important part of the finished flavor profile from a brewer who has expressed that he likes to dry off away from yeast I would consider sticking with a secondary step, just be very careful and, if you have the ability, purge the receiving container with co2.

[sdevries42]

It's unlikely that there is a problem.

Generally, if you are going to move to secondary, you should wait till you know the fermentation is complete. You know this because two gravity readings several days apart will be the same.

That said, 1.011 sounds in line with what i would expect. I suspect there was a temp change and/or the hops provided nucleation sites for co2 bubbles so more co2 is coming out of solution.

That said, keep an eye on the gravity and if it keeps dropping it means either it wasn't done when you moved it and now it's finishing up in which case, yay! or you picked up a more attenuative yeast somewhere along the way in which case, well you'll have to wait and see, might still be yay!

Going forward, you can skip the secondary most of the time. in this  case with the pliny and the heavy dry hopping getting the beer off the yeast first can be beneficial but most of the time it's more effort for no real return and offers some rick of infection or oxidation.

I moved a Belgian from primary to secondary too soon while fermentation was still ongoing. I don't know what I was thinking. Now I'm worried fermentation will not complete as it has significantly slowed now. Could I just add more yeast to the secondary or am i stuck?

[morticaixavier]

It's unlikely that there is a problem.

Generally, if you are going to move to secondary, you should wait till you know the fermentation is complete. You know this because two gravity readings several days apart will be the same.

That said, 1.011 sounds in line with what i would expect. I suspect there was a temp change and/or the hops provided nucleation sites for co2 bubbles so more co2 is coming out of solution.

That said, keep an eye on the gravity and if it keeps dropping it means either it wasn't done when you moved it and now it's finishing up in which case, yay! or you picked up a more attenuative yeast somewhere along the way in which case, well you'll have to wait and see, might still be yay!

Going forward, you can skip the secondary most of the time. in this  case with the pliny and the heavy dry hopping getting the beer off the yeast first can be beneficial but most of the time it's more effort for no real return and offers some rick of infection or oxidation.

I moved a Belgian from primary to secondary too soon while fermentation was still ongoing. I don't know what I was thinking. Now I'm worried fermentation will not complete as it has significantly slowed now. Could I just add more yeast to the secondary or am i stuck?

as long as the gravity is still dropping I would let it ride. It's hard to restart a stuck fermentation because any yeast you add will generally be overwhelmed by the alchohol and low pH. You can get a big pitch together, either get fresh slurry from a local brewery if you can or make a big fresh starter and pitch at high krausen and it might work. But if gravity is still dropping just wait it out.

[Jimmy K]

The flavor that would be caused by too long on the yeast cake would be brothy, meaty, soy sauce like flavors and I've personally never experienced them in homebrew. Not to say it can't happen but within reason it's unlikely to happen to you.

I had it once in my own homebrew, but it was a beer that I neglected and sat in primary for over six months. Never in beers that were in primary for several weeks.
 
 
 

[sdevries42]

I had a local home brew shop owner where I used to live drill into my head when I was brand new to brewing that you want to get the beer off the sediment asap. I know better now but for some reason that thought still sits in the back of my head

[brulosopher]

I know some still prefer racking to secondary, but I did an xBmt comparing primary-only to secondary on a dry hopped beer and tasters weren't reliably able to discern a difference.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/08/12/primary-only-vs-transfer-to-secondary-exbeeriment-results/