Today I racked my beer to its secondary vessel. It had a pretty vigourous fermentation for about 4 days. I took a gravity reading on the 4th day and it was 1.011. It started slowing down on the 6th day to about one bubble out of the airlock every 50 seconds. Today made it 8 days in the primary with final gravity of 1.010. That would give it an attenuation of about 80% and an ABV of 6.7% with my original gravity of 1.060. It had a much darker hue than I expected but the Biere de Garde color range is pretty broad so there isn’t too much of a clear cut rule. I’ll now leave it in the secondary for a couple weeks then prepare for bottling.
The only concern I had was the water temp of my carboy bath, which was to provide a warmer and more buffered temperature and environment, was that it was about 75°-76°. I know that it is supposed to be fermented as a warmer ale, even though it is a lager yeast. I’m hoping it isn’t to fruity tasting, as I’ve read it can when warm temps are involved. Maybe the “cellaring” will diminish this.
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