Homebrewing Irish Red Ale - Part II

Last week I provided a photo/video overview of making beer at home. That post laid out the gear and ingredients used and the steps I took in preparing the wort for an Irish Red Ale. As a reminder, the initial gravity reading on my hydrometer at that point was 1.048. This week, I moved the beer into secondary fermentation in a carboy. This post will go through the much easier task (as well as purpose) of doing a secondary fermentation. I could bottle this beer today. The ABV is adequate. But I prefer to do the secondary for several reasons.

First things first. I staged my bucket of sanitizer and sanitized all of my gear. I cannot stress this step enough. Anything that touches the wort/beer must be sanitized. I normally wait a minimum of five minutes before using anything I have sanitized. After taking that necessary preparatory step, I opened my beer bucket. Above is what you should see. The ring around the rim of the bucket is called krausen. If you did not filter the wort when you moved it from the brew pot, this ring will be much thicker. This is normal to see. It means that your wort fermented. These are the solids that collected at the top as the the yeast was devouring sugars and releasing gases.

My next step is to measure the gravity again. This is not the final gravity. I will take that measurement before bottling. As you can see on the hydrometer, the reading is 1.010. If you subtract this from the original gravity, you come up with a total of .038. Multiplied by 131.25, you arrive at a number a hair below 5 ABV. I would just call this 5 ABV (particularly since bottle aging will increase the ABV slightly). However, I will take one more reading before bottling, which I don't expect to be much lower. This beer is pretty much ready to bottle. So why bother doing a secondary fermentation at all?

Moving the beer to a secondary fermentation accomplishes two things. It reactivates the yeast, which may burn off some extra sugars. This may increase the ABV slightly while making the beer a bit less sweet. Secondly, it will help to clarify the beer. As you can see, I use a siphon pump to move the beer (I don't like the idea of sucking on the end of a hose when I spend so much time sanitizing everything). Aside from keeping my lips off the beer, the siphon pump also acts as a filter of large solids and provides an ability to view the beer as it is being moved to the carboy. Using the siphon also allows a bit more precision in moving beer while avoiding the trub (pronounced troob) at the bottom of the bucket.

As you can see in this photo, the bottom of the bucket is covered in a heavy sludge called trub or lees (as well as a chunk of krausen that has dropped down). Using the siphon as a wand, I can minimize the amount of solids that make it into secondary fermentation. Some folks like their beer a bit gamey. I don't. One of my objectives when I make beer is to get it as clear and solid free as possible. I really don't like it when I pour a beer and a layer of sediment at the bottom drops into my beer making it cloudy. With homebrewing, that is not an uncommon occurrence. Particularly with bottle aging, which is the process I use to carbonate the beer. But that is a story for next week.

This photo shows the beer going into my carboy. I use gravity to move the beer. It is the easiest way to make this happen. I place the carboy on a short stool (covered by a tarp just in case...one accident and I will be banished to the garage for this step in the process). The bucket is on my kitchen counter. After priming the siphon pump, I pour a small bit into a glass and then begin filling the carboy.

Okay, now I know what you are thinking. He is so impatient, he has to sample the beer before it is finished. It is not even carbonated yet. Well, there are two important reasons for this step. First, my pump has been sitting in the sanitizing solution. I want to minimize the amount of sanitizer in the actual beer. So this allows me to wash a bit of the sanitizer out of the hose before filling my carboy. I also have the opportunity to check to see if any off esters have crept into my brew. And, okay, yes, I am impatient. I want to know how it tastes. I have not made an Irish Red Ale before. And this one is delicious. Seriously. Yum.

What next? My carboy will sit in my home gym for an undetermined period of time before I begin bottling. I may let it sit a full week if I don't have time to bottle during the week. That is the most likely scenario. However, I will monitor the activity based on the bubbling in my airlock. If the bubbling stops in a day or so, which is the likely scenario, I may decide to go forward with bottling. I need a couple of hours (and an assistant) to do the bottling. The secondary fermentation will allow a subsequent settling of solids as well as some finishing. Sometimes the beer will mellow a bit in secondary, although I have to say that this beer is pretty mellow as is. The bottling will be covered in the next installment. Stay tuned.

All photos are my own. They may be reproduced with prior permission.