Made a 10 gallon all-grain batch of a Bell's 2 hearted clone. Split into 2 separate 5 gallon carboys and split yeast starter between the two carboys. Vigorous fermentation in both vessels the first week, slowed considerably by end of 2nd week, and yeast fell back into beer. At this time I transferred one of vessels into my corny keg for a secondary fermentation the other vessel I did not touch. Its now week 3, and the corny keg has seemed to kick into active fermentation again, with a few inches of krausen on the surface, the other vessel, no sign of any active fermentation. I've never seen this before when I split a batch this way. Any idea why one vessel would behave this way? Think it has something to do with the transfer?
Have you checked the gravity of either? Just venturing a guess...but I would assume that you're yeast may have stalled, and when you transferred you put them back in suspension...and perhaps at a higher temp(?) which woke them up. If you did get a secondary ferment, perhaps one of the carboys received less yeast from the split starter... That's all just conjecture.
What was the gravity of your beer wen you transferred? And why did you transfer, i.e. were you adding some ingredient?
Did not check the gravity before transfer. I did not add any ingredient to the secondary vessel, the instructions "called" for a 2 stage fermentation. Just wanted to clear beer, that is, move it off of the yeast and hop residue.
Hard to say without knowing the gravity, but my guess would be the same as JohnSnowNW, i.e. your fermentation wasn't done, and transferring and/or temperature change roused the yeast. How much yeast did you use? And what was the temperature in primary and in secondary? BTW, you generally don't have to do a secondary. Kit instructions don't seem to have caught up with the current trend... where more people skip secondaries than do them. You probably ought to check gravities now, particularly on the half of the batch that did not seem to restart.
