Secondary before FG?

[AGbrewer]

Do you rack over to secondary prior to hitting FG?

Pros and Cons?

I've got a beer that is pretty close to FG and has been on the yeast for about 20 days. Going to rack it over at some point to age on whisky soaked oak spirals for about 3-6 months, so I'm wanting to get it off the yeast cake, but don't want to move it too soon...hence the post.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1138413/gibcs-015

 

[Megary]

I’ll go out on a limb here. I’m fully prepared to take it on the chin.

Transferring to secondary (bright tank) before FG is hit:

Pros:
Any transfer introduced O2 will be taken care of by the still active yeast.

Cons:
If left for 3-6 months, you will still have some yeast sediment and potential autolysis issues in the finished beer (ie, bready, yeasty, meaty off flavors).

Personally, I would wait until FG is hit, but this is a guess. I have no history at all with using a secondary/bright tank. I think this is a great question.

 

[Dornbox]

I'm with @Megary with the pros. As for the cons, I think a lot of the autolysis concerns have been proven myths in the last few years. Substantiated or not would be concerns about disrupting a complete fermentation but at 20 days you should be long past FG even if it's higher than you expected.

Looking at your brew's stats, that thing is big and with a mash temp of 152º, your attenuation is probably as good as it's gonna get. For larger beers, I tend to mash lower assuming that I'll have more residual sugars than normal.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I don't see any problems racking to secondary now. Even if you wait until terminal gravity has been reached, there will still be yeast in suspension. And as @Megary has suggested, the remaining fermentation will take care of any oxygen.

 

[GFHomebrew]

The one time I've done a big beer was barley wine which I racked off primary vessel onto some toasted rum soaked oak chips. So I'm down with it.
I think with these big beers barleywine especially a bit of oxidation is acceptable per style.
It scored a bronze in comp high 30's by memory

 

[J A]

I've got a beer that is pretty close to FG and has been on the yeast for about 20 days.

It is at FG. It didn't attenuate as much as you expected or predicted, that's all.The racking process may stir up things and you may or may not see another bit of attenuation but it definitely isn't going to do any good to wait longer.

 

[Hawkbox]

Go ahead and do it, I don't but I doubt it will be a major issue either way.

 

[AGbrewer]

It's dropped down to 1.028 so far. Probably going to rack it over to secondary tomorrow and add the whisky soaked spirals.

Thanks for all the info. Much appreciated.