Trying to move a full fermenter (a really bad idea??!)

[squirt in the turns]

I'm facing a bit of a dilema. I have to move house this weekend, including my brewing equipment, and a fermenter which is currently full of ale in primary. I made this one up on Sunday night (15/02), so chances are it will be done fermenting by next Sun (22/02), which is the latest I'll moving stuff out.

I would normally rack after 2 weeks and bottle after another 1 or 2, so I figure I could take it in the car, carefully holding it in the passenger seat while my long-suffering (and beer-enjoying) girlfriend drives the 15 minutes to the new pad. Then I'd give it the normal further week to settle, rack and bottle as normal.

The alternative is that I leave it where it is for now, forget racking, come back in a couple of weeks and take over half the living area with my bottling activities - audacious behaviour, but I have my current housemates' blessing. The main problem with this is that my temperature control method is the ice bath (frozen bottles of water in rotation). I can't really ask my housemates to take care of that for me.

So really what I need to know is what kind of appalling accidents I may have failed to anticipate if I attempt this frankly absurd plan.

Cheers guys!

[gregb]

If you can move it without too much risk of tippage/spillage, then I'd move it in the primary and carry on as normal.

Cheers,
Greg.

[Smabb]

Well haven't tried something like this myself but I'd just move it.

Thinking about the issues (as far as I can figure out) they'd be: spillage/fermentor damage/catastrophic beer loss or introduction of oxygen into the fementor. I'm not aware of any other potential problems.

You seem to be making good plans to avoid the fermentor taking a whack. Just watch the tap, its the weak point, as i have found out from hard experience. in regards to oxygen if you've got it all nicely sealed off and don't do anything too radical that shouldn't be a big problem.

I don't see why you couldn't rack before you move, in fact getting it off the trub is probably a good idea as all the shaking etc will spread all that stuff up through your beer again which I'm thinking probably isn't the best.

Keep us posted on how it works out.

Cheers

[billybushcook]

I'm assuming you are using an air lock?
Personally, I use the cling wrap, & would n't dare touch it once fermentation has slowed down!
When I used to use an air lock, one thing I did notice was that if you pick it up, the deformation of the sides would push gas out the air lock & then suck heaps back in when you let it go, but I'm guessing you already know this so the best option is to break the seal slightly?
either way it will, at some point, suck some air in, hence, when left sit for another week, run the risk of infection, i did say risk......not definate! but the longer it is left after this, the greater the chance of an infection getting a foot hold.
Being a cling wrapper, I'm very cautious of infections, (rarely happens) but then I can see them & make a call on when to pull them up too! If you are closed fermenting, you will not know until it is too late!

Aside from the obvious "stirring up of the contents" which the extra week & racking will fix any way, you have two evils to contend with as I see it.
1. move it & risk the possibility of infection. (if you let it sit dorment for another week)
2. loss of temperature control.

Q, which is the lesser of the two evils???

Have you considered botteling it on the Sunday before you have to move it, if it has finished?
A week sounds a bit short to me but Iv'e no idea what the brew/temp/yeast is either?

Cheers, Mick.

[Smabb]

Mick you forgot risk 3.

Leave it and desperate ex-flat mates drink it on you!

[Tommogt]

so I figure I could take it in the car, carefully holding it in the passenger seat while my long-suffering (and beer-enjoying) girlfriend drives the 15 minutes to the new pad.

Hmmmmm. just imagine if the boys in blue pulled him over ??

I would like to see that ! actually, i would pay good money to see that !

[PaulSteele]

i recently tipped a batch out for this reason.

I was frantically debating how i was going to move it, then i tasted it and realised i could probably stand to lose it.

However, a treasured brew would have ridden shotgun for the 20 minute drive home, seat-belted in.

[squirt in the turns]

Hey y'all! Thanks for all the advice, and sorry I didn't post any response to let you know how it turned out.

Racking or bottling before moving turned out to be a no-go - moving weekend was a big enough ordeal without having to mess around doing that.

Mick - I do use an air-lock and was aware of the potential for it to suck air and even the air-lock water through. I was using one of those Brigalow 2-part ones, so I just took the top off and cling wrapped it straight away (figuring no gas needed to escape as fermentation had stopped). Basically I wanted to get as close to a hermetic seal as possible.

Smabb - LOL, they'd have to be pretty desperate to drink warm, flat beer straight from the fermenter! They wouldn't be about to bottle it themselves - I was the only brewer in the house.

Hmmmmm. just imagine if the boys in blue pulled him over ??

I would like to see that ! actually, i would pay good money to see that !

Tommogt - Unfortunately this did not happen. But, correct me if I'm wrong, it's not cool to have an open alcohol container in the vehicle while driving (does that extend to the empties rattling around on the floor? ), but a sealed fermenter wouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, the rest of the story is that I got around to racking about a week and a half after we moved, so it was in the primary fermenter for 2 and a half weeks. I drank a sample (the stuff left in the racking tube) and it didn't taste off, so I reckon I got a way with it! Bottling will be tomorrow and first tasting will be about 10 or 14 days after that.

Cheers guys!

[warra48]

Nice one Squirt.

Looks like you saved your brew.