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When to move to secondary

uSlackr

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Feb 19, 2013
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Location
Eastern PA
I'm a 3 month old n00b, some please excuse any ignorance. I am brewing my first lager in the form of a dopplebock.  Our local homebrew store sold the kit. Things are going well in primary.  after 9 days, SG is down to 1.026 headed to 1.020.
My question is, when do I choose to move to secondary for lagering. Do I need to wait til I hit the target, or is now a good time?  Is there a rule of thumb for this?

\\Greg
 
When fermentation stops...  So when your gravity doesn't change for 2-3 days you can move it.
 
+1 to "When fermentation stops".

There is no set time as there are so many variables. Even after the airlock (or bubbling in the bucket) has slowed to a crawl, the yeast are still working, cleaning up after themselves, reducing unwanted fermentation by-products so let them finish the job.

Once you are seeing very little activity, take an SG reading, and repeat the next day. If the readings are the same 2 days in a row, fermentation should be essentially complete but it is a good idea to wait at least a few more days to be sure the clean up is done. THEN rack to a secondary for lagering as desired.
 
I didn't start lagering until after I stopped calling myself a noob.

'Spose it matters what part of the country you are in, but my advice is to start w/pale ales and don't use a secondary.

After enough success w/that, work up to lagering, all grain, decoction, & on...

I definitely applaud your temperature control of your fermentation.  I think that is the best thing you can do to improve beer quality.

For this instance, I'd say wait until your fermentation slows enough that you are getting a firm layer on the bottom so that you can draw clear beer into your secondary.
 
Slacker,

There is a rule of thumb concerning when to move to secondary. In fact there are lots of rules of thumb. Philm63's and JimPony's advice is the baseline with every imaginable variation. Read Palmer's "How to Brew"; it's free on-line at http://www.howtobrew.com/. Then search through this forum. You'll find plenty of rules, guidelines and opinions. Try a few and see what works for you.

Fermentation temperature control makes ales and lagers better. Once you have that, lagers are no more difficult than ales, they just require a little more patience. A dopplebock probably has enough flavor and strength to cover up small imperfections in a brewer's techniques, but will still let you learn a lot. The deep end of the pool's more fun.
 
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