Secondary fermentation question

Biergarden said:

If you leave your beer in the primary fermentor for too long of a period, your yeast will auto lysis. In other words they will break apart and leave you beer with the off flavor of under cooked bread.
Your best bet if you don't have a secondary fermentor is to just get it into your bottling bucket and into bottles.
Don't leave your beer on dead and dying yeast. After fermentation is complete, by serial hydrometer readings, move it off the old yeast and into another vessel be it bottles, kegs, or better yet, a secondary fermenter.
There are good reasons to let it rest in a secondary, since the healthy yeast left in suspension still have work to do, even after all the active fermentation is complete.

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Superstorm said:

I don't know who to believe. One of you said not to transfer and the other one said to transfer haha.

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Gameface said:

Did you come to HBT from a 1970s time machine?

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johnny_hophead said:

Hi guys, I'm new in this forum and I didn't want to start a new thread just for this question, but here it goes:
I've made an Imperial Stout (extract plus grains) with an OG of 1100, it fermented for 9 days on the primary and I transferred to a secondary (this saturday).
The beer was still bubbling, like 1 every 4 minutes, and the FG was still 1038, and now I don't see any activity in the secondary. I peeked through the airlock and there is almost no yeast suspension (there is not a "whole" foam, just little dots).
I've realized I did a terrible mistake, but would you reccomend me to re-inoculate more yeast? What should I do? The room temperature is the same as during the primary fermentation (about 21 C) but the fermenter says 19 C.. The FG is still 1038 (measured today)

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Gameface said:

Did you come to HBT from a 1970s time machine?

There is no urgent need to get your beer off the yeast. They are not experiencing a yeast holocaust after fermenting your beer...they are taking a nap.

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Yooper said:

Please keep the insults and personal remarks out of this. Thanks.


Many people have different thoughts and experiences and those are all valid, even if someone doesn't agree.

I'm not in the "month in primary" camp at all, and I am a pretty decent brewer.

I'm also not a big "secondary" fan either.

I tend to keep most beers in the fermenter for at least 3 days after fermentation ends, and until the beer starts to clear (or is perfectly clear), and that is often 10-14 days. That's not a mantra, that's not a "you must do this or your beer will suck" piece of advice- it's my experience via trial and error and shows my preference for less yeast character in the final beer.

The reason there are several schools of thought on this is because we all have preferences. Some people prefer the flavor of a beer that spent 3-4 weeks in primary, and that's great for them. Some, like me, prefer the flavor of a beer that has been removed from the yeast cake a few days after fermentation finishes. That's also fine.

For new brewers- try it both ways and see which YOU prefer.

As long as fermentation is finished for at least 3 days, and the beer is starting to clear, it's ok to move it either to a carboy or to bottles.

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Yooper said:

Please keep the insults and personal remarks out of this. Thanks.


Many people have different thoughts and experiences and those are all valid, even if someone doesn't agree.

I'm not in the "month in primary" camp at all, and I am a pretty decent brewer.

I'm also not a big "secondary" fan either.

I tend to keep most beers in the fermenter for at least 3 days after fermentation ends, and until the beer starts to clear (or is perfectly clear), and that is often 10-14 days. That's not a mantra, that's not a "you must do this or your beer will suck" piece of advice- it's my experience via trial and error and shows my preference for less yeast character in the final beer.

The reason there are several schools of thought on this is because we all have preferences. Some people prefer the flavor of a beer that spent 3-4 weeks in primary, and that's great for them. Some, like me, prefer the flavor of a beer that has been removed from the yeast cake a few days after fermentation finishes. That's also fine.

For new brewers- try it both ways and see which YOU prefer.

As long as fermentation is finished for at least 3 days, and the beer is starting to clear, it's ok to move it either to a carboy or to bottles.

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Gameface said:

Sorry, Yooper. I'll mind my manners.

This same poster was advising people to make starters at 1.080 so that they would have enough yeast to pitch because if they made a starter at 1.040 they'd be underpitching and not properly preparing their yeast for their 1.080 batch of beer.

I agree, one of the great things about brewing is that there are many avenues one can take to make great beer. There is always another aspect one can focus on and improve upon in their process.

But, what is pretty much undeniable is that leaving the beer on the yeast for a month or even two does not ruin the beer. You may prefer beer that has been removed sooner, but the idea that autolysis starts after just a couple weeks is provably false. New brewers should not fear the impending doom of autolysis if they don't hurry and transfer to a secondary.

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