Fear for my beer

[teddy_b]

Hey folks,

First and foremost, i'm a noob at beer-making, so i apologize in advance for obvious oversights and stupid questions.

I'm making the FestaBrew West Coast IPA brew kit right now, and i'm worried that i may have left my 'beer' in the primary fermentor for too long. I waited for the foam to fall within the prescribed range of days; however, after racking my beer into my secondary fermentor (glass carboy) i haven't noticed any activity in my air lock. It's been sitting in the carboy for about 6 days now. I'm worried that the fermentation had already finished prior to racking and there wasn't enough yeast activity to purge the air in the headspace from the carboy. I haven't been tracking the specific weight, so no clues there.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Will my beer kill me? Proceed with bottling? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Ted

[Jimmy]

It will be fine. You'll find a lot of people don't secondary at all. I normally do a primary fermentation for about 3 weeks, then keg directly from there.

[RubberToe]

So it has been in the secondary for 6 days? How long was it in the primary for, and at roughly what temperature?

Also, welcome BTW!

[mr x]

My only worry would be the purging, but the racking should have released some CO2 to do that.

[amartin]

It's probably fine, when I rack (which isn't often anymore), it's usually after the fermentation is done. If you're really concerned, throw in an ounce or two of pellet hops, they'll release some CO2. It's an IPA, they're often dry hopped anyway.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

Yeah the oxygen won't affect it in any big way IMO.

[weir]

I just finished the same kit as my first brew, there was very little airlock activity after racking and it turned out great (about 1 week in secondary(. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[jason.loxton]

It'll be fine. Don't worry about it! (And in the future, you can skip the secondary entirely--ferment in your carboy and use a blow off tube.)

As an aside, if you're really worried--and you shouldn't be--give it a little swirl, being careful not to foam things up and mix with the potentially O2-rich air in the carboy. You can problem get some of the CO2 dissolved in your beer from fermentation out of solution through slight agitation to purge the space.

[Tony L]

The brew is done for.

Leave it in the carboy for another week, bottle it up with some sugar and send to me for proper disposal

[GAM]

I was waiting for that response.

Sandy

[Dirt Chicken]

I was waiting for that response.

Sandy

Meeeeeee too!

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

[Tony L]

Glad not to disappoint you guys. I try hard.

[teddy_b]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I'll bottle tomorrow and let you know how it goes in a few weeks. Cheers!

[Tony L]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I'll bottle tomorrow and let you know how it goes in a few weeks. Cheers!

just checking, but do you need my address?

[teddy_b]

Just an update on the beer: Everything turned out great, and it's disappearing quickly. Thanks again, everyone.

[mr x]

Excellent!

[Tony L]

Just an update on the beer: Everything turned out great, and it's disappearing quickly. Thanks again, everyone.

Never got a chance to condition much, lol. Looks good.
Make sure you have another in line ready to go.