wheat beer in primary

[twilliams1223]

Hey all,

This is only my second batch of homebrew so my question might be a little "uneducated" I have had a a wheat beer in the primary and the airlock bubbles evry 30 seconds or so. The foam has fallen. Is it ok to rack to the secondary, or should I wait. Does a wheat beer even need to go to a secondary

Thanks for enduring the questions.

Tom

[Mill Rat]

Getting your beer off the trub that carried over from the kettle is one of the easiest and most important ways to improve your beer. Don't skip going to secondary. Ever. You will want to wait to do it until you can see a pretty clear line between the gunk on the bottom and the beer on top. If you've got a plastic primary, at one bubble every 30 seconds, you're pretty close to this point. You'll see many recommendations of 1-2-3 weeks for primary, secondary, and bottle (or keg) conditioning on this site. It's a good guideline, but the beer is more important than the calendar. When the beer is ready to move it's ready to move, and when it's not ready it's not ready, and no amount of pointing at the calendar (or thirsty brewers) will get it to hurry up. Above all, relax. Beer making is pretty forgiving of everything except poor sanitation.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by twilliams1223

Thanks for enduring the questions.

That;s why we come to this site - never worry about asking questions (but a quick search of the site first would be appreciated).

[markaberrant]

I'd say that wheat beers and low OG english ales don't require a secondary. 2 weeks in primary should do it, but giving them a secondary won't necessarily hurt them either.