Premature Racking? Obsessive Racking

Tuesday night, I racked the Temple Street Mild. It had appeared to have a vigorous fermentation, and had slowed it's bubbling substantially. The krausen hadn't completely fallen, but was on a speedy decline. There was also significant sedimentation. I was surprised to find that the current gravity was 1.020. It's only 50-75% done fermenting. I suppose that would be a fine time for the typical german diacetyl rest. British beers need it as much or more than lagers.

Of course, the temperature has dropped, and it's now fermenting at 68 instead of 70. I'd need to raise it up to get the yeast active in converting any potential diacetyl into something less buttery.

At the same time, it's good to have the beer off of the trub. Dead yeast cells autolyse (self destruct) and yield off flavors.

I may end up racking a second time this weekend, and raise the temp up to 71 or so for a 2 day diacetyl rest and have a sediment free tertiary fermentation. Typically commercial breweries use conical fermenters, and draw off the sediment daily. I’m not just obsessive about this. Sediment is a real issue. A crazy part of me wants to start fermenting upside down but the engineer in me knows that I'd take a massive yield hit doing that with these carboys.