I thought this looked pretty cool...

Just wondering why you moved it from primary at all?

 

I'm not sure what your abv is but even with moderate and low alcohol beers my rule of thumb is at least 3 weeks in primary. If I just needed the fermenter space, I would buy another fermenter. That time in primary is precious.

 

I wholly agree with @kellyst time to get another fermenter, or wait another week to brew the next batch. I give each of my batches 2 weeks total before packaging, but that is after dialing my fermentation paramaters, and knowing my yeast.

 

Yeah, I only have room for one fermenter in my chamber, but I never rack the beer just to get a different one in there. I have 3 or 4 different carboys and buckets, and after a week or so of temperature controlled fermentation I'll often move the beer from the fridge into a dark corner of my basement so I can temp control a second batch.

I did recently rack a tripel to a secondary to free up a 6.5G carboy, but that was after at least 3 weeks of fermentation (and I used CO2 to push the beer to minimize oxidation - the beer turned out really well!).

 

I'll respectfully disagree with this one. Unless it's a lager, 3 weeks in primary is a long time. Generally, there's no harm in waiting that long - but with enough yeast? The bulk of the work in primary is done in a matter of days. 3 - 5 for low gravity beers, 7 - 10 for bigger ones. I might leave it a little longer if I know it's a poor-flocculating strain - but otherwise? It's just taking up space unnecessarily, and the longer it sits - the greater the risk of picking up some unwanted flavors from the trub.

edit: The one thing I don't disagree with is the part about buying another fermentor. Everyone needs more than one!

 

Is that a 6 gallon carboy you're using for secondary w/ a 5 gallon batch? If so, you'd benefit from using a 5 gal carboy - particularly if your beers are spending months there. The less headspace you have, the better.

 

I love glass carboys because watching fermentation is oddly fascinating. like a fish tank I suppose, only I drink the beer.

Although I rarely use them anymore, except in the case of lager a hydrometer has a place in this brewery somewhere.
Cheers.

edit-
Dunkel is back, and that is a good thing. Cheers.

 

cheers! No idea how long it will last - but it's good to be back.

(But... I'm *still* bummed about the purging of the old server... so many lost threads!)

 

well you have been around longer than I have by over a whole week. I can only imagine what it was like.

 

LOL!

Mostly, I'm just annoyed with myself because - more than I care to admit amid 5000 posts or whatever it was up to before the site 'upgrade' - I used this forum to keep 'notes' re: a bunch of recipes, yeast strain performance, etc. that often complemented things I'd stored in ProMash (but with more detail). Then, a laptop crash wiped out years of recipes.. And now it's lost to the ether - save whatever's banked up in my head.. I've learned my lesson and back up everything to an external hard drive now, but still wish there was an archive somewhere. Oh well. I'm up to 75 posts again!