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Date: 23 Jun 2006 12:27:06
From: Gerard Eberlein
Subject: What to do?
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I was about to rack off my hefe today for some clarification because it
hadn't shown any activity for 2 days...I sterilized everything, went
downstairs and now it's perking again, albeit slowly. Would it be OK to rack
it and let it finish in secondary or would this disrupt the ferm? Thanx in
advance.
Gerard
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Date: 23 Jun 2006 17:02:51
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: What to do?
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On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:27:06 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net > wrote:
> I was about to rack off my hefe today for some clarification because it
> hadn't shown any activity for 2 days...I sterilized everything, went
> downstairs and now it's perking again, albeit slowly. Would it be OK to rack
> it and let it finish in secondary or would this disrupt the ferm? Thanx in
> advance.
Racking it now won't hurt anything, also waiting and racking it later
won't hurt anything either. There's no rule on when you rack to secondary,
it's more of a preference and/or convenience thing. Personally, I wait until
the krausen has started to fall back into the beer and then rack to secondary.
John.
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Date: 23 Jun 2006 13:54:22
From: Gerard Eberlein
Subject: Re: What to do?
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Cool, thanx. I checked the SG and it was 1.012 so it's within specs but I
think it might drop another point or 2 over the next week in secondary.
Krausen was gone but it did have alot of bubbles on top of the wort. I kinda
messed this one up. I did a full boil and when I went to pitch it was about
5.5 gallons and the OG was lower than it was supposed to be so I didn't boil
it rapidly enough I guess. Next time I'll use less water and top off rather
than end up with a "hefe light". BTW if i use priming (corn) sugar instead
of the 1 1/4 cups wheat DME it calls for how much would you use? 5 or 6 oz?
Gerard
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Date: 24 Jun 2006 05:53:50
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: What to do?
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On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:54:22 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net > wrote:
>
> Cool, thanx. I checked the SG and it was 1.012 so it's within specs but I
> think it might drop another point or 2 over the next week in secondary.
> Krausen was gone but it did have alot of bubbles on top of the wort. I kinda
> messed this one up. I did a full boil and when I went to pitch it was about
> 5.5 gallons and the OG was lower than it was supposed to be so I didn't boil
> it rapidly enough I guess. Next time I'll use less water and top off rather
> than end up with a "hefe light". BTW if i use priming (corn) sugar instead
> of the 1 1/4 cups wheat DME it calls for how much would you use? 5 or 6 oz?
I'd have to look it up again, but based on volume measurements the standard
amount of priming sugar is 3/4 cup (when using plain sugar). 5 or 6 oz
sounds right, but I'm not 100% sure off the top of my head what the weight
equivalent is.
John.
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Date: 23 Jun 2006 13:00:41
From: PaulK
Subject: Re: What to do?
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Gerard Eberlein wrote:
> I was about to rack off my hefe today for some clarification because it
> hadn't shown any activity for 2 days...I sterilized everything, went
> downstairs and now it's perking again, albeit slowly. Would it be OK to rack
> it and let it finish in secondary or would this disrupt the ferm? Thanx in
> advance.
>
> Gerard
I never do secondaries for hefeweizens. It's not meant to be a clear
style so why go through the extra step. The "activity" you saw after
several days of inactivity is probably just offgassing. A change in
temperature or atmospheric pressure can sudennly make your fermenter
seem to come alive even though it's nothing more than CO2 being
released.
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Date: 24 Jun 2006 05:55:21
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: What to do?
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On 23 Jun 2006 13:00:41 -0700, <nyc_hg@yahoo.com > wrote:
>
> Gerard Eberlein wrote:
>> I was about to rack off my hefe today for some clarification because it
>> hadn't shown any activity for 2 days...I sterilized everything, went
>> downstairs and now it's perking again, albeit slowly. Would it be OK to rack
>> it and let it finish in secondary or would this disrupt the ferm? Thanx in
>> advance.
>>
>> Gerard
>
> I never do secondaries for hefeweizens. It's not meant to be a clear
> style so why go through the extra step. The "activity" you saw after
> several days of inactivity is probably just offgassing. A change in
> temperature or atmospheric pressure can sudennly make your fermenter
> seem to come alive even though it's nothing more than CO2 being
> released.
Yep, that's why SG measurements are more meaningful than counting bubbles.
In regards to racking to secondary, it's not that important though. Making
sure you know the difference between fermentation activity and just offgassing
is more important when deciding if it's safe to bottle or not.
John.
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