Making Beer - Step 5

Now we have to wait a few days to a week for the bubbling out of the fermentation lock to slow down. This indicates that a majority of the sugar has been consumed by the yeast and that the wort will be cloudy with dead yeast as well as a bunch on the bottom of the container.

At this point a decision must be made - use a single or double fermentation process. We generally use a double fermentation process. This means that once the fermentation slows down we transfer the mixture from the initial container to another 5 gallon, glass carboy. The syphon we use leaves a small amount of liquid and most of the dead yeast behind, resulting in a clearer beer.

Now we need to wait another week or so for the fermentation to completely finish.

This is the carboy used in the secondary fermentation process.

Beer Trivia: The word carboy is from the Persian qarabah, which means "big jug". Carboy's are also referred to as "demijohns" and in the southern US they are known as "jimmyjohns".