secondary yeast cake

[fuji6100]

I brewed a hefe with wyeast 3333 a while back, and after a vigorous primary fermentation for about 6 days, the krausen fell so I racked to a secondary carboy. Fermentation kicked off again, and a new krausen formed and since then (11 days ago) a new layer of yeast over an inch thick has formed on the bottom of the carboy.

My question is... Now that the airlock bubbles less than once every 3-5 minutes, should I go ahead and keg this to get it off of the yeast cake and let it condition in the keg for a while, or don't worry about it and let it continue conditioning in the carboy for a few more days until I have more time?

[snakesandstuff]

I'm gonna take a stab at this and say that if your specific gravity on it isn't changing and you're going to keg it soon, I'd just keg it. However, if you were going to condition longer in a carboy, I'd guess that taking it off of the yeast cake might be a good idea, but only if you're going to leave it in a tertiary for an extended period. I'm willing to bet that if the fermentation is done, you'll end up with good beer with any route you take.

[mmmBeer...]

I wouldn't worry about a few more days for it to finish. Just let it sit till it is done, and the SG settles. I would think that the risk of contamination woudld be greater by racking it again than the chance of off flavours from the secondary...but anyone can feel free to disagree.

[fuji6100]

I would think that the risk of contamination woudld be greater by racking it again than the chance of off flavours from the secondary

Oh, I didn't plan on racking from this keg to another one. I'll tap it after it conditions/carbinates for a few weeks. I've just never had this much yeast settle out of a secondary before and was worried about auto-lysis.

I guess I should just RDWHAH ~_^

[MARK123]

I would leave it in the second as long as possible!