Is there a minimum amount of time for secodnary

Did a 1-gallon all-grain batch a few weeks ago. It's in the midst of its third week of primary now, sitting in its gallon jug. I have NOT taken a gravity reading because it's such a small volume of beer that I don't want to lose 1/9th of the beer due to a reading. However, since it's been 18 days since brew day and the airlock stopped bubbling 13 or so days ago, I gotta' figure it's done. Now, today from Amazon should be delivered another gallon jug. I was hoping to transfer this beer (Brooklyn Brewing IPA) to the new jug for a secondary. I hoped to bottle the beer Saturday or Sunday. I am NOT dry hopping the beer. I just like to secondary beers. My question is, is there a minimum amount of time that beer should sit in secondary? Normally I let them sit in there at least a week.

I wouldn't have taken SG readings for the same reason.

Fermentation has been complete for 2-3 weeks. Moving to secondary offers no benefit for this beer. The beer is done... it's not gong to get 'doner' by letting it sit longer or transferring it. It could benefit from some cold conditioning, where putting it in the fridge will force proteins and other stuff to drop out and help clear the beer. If its already clear, skip it.

It's ready to bottle.

Yep. 0 days is the minimum.

I'd skip it too. Secondary adds such little benefit as it is, and here, you'd be doing a secondary for something like 48-72 hours, which will do absolutely nothing to benefit the beer. Just go straight to bottling.

Skip secondary entirely, and if you plan on doing lots more 1 gallon batches, get yourself a refractometer, so you can take a gravity reading with just an eyedropper's-worth of wort/beer.

Alright - thanks. I'll just throw it in the fridge today and cold crash it 'till bottling. Cold crashing in my fridge a 1-gallon jug is possible. Cold crashing a 5-gallon carboy - not so much. Probably won't bother with a refractometer, unless I can find one pretty cheap.

Keep an eye on Northern Brewer. They always do "Buy an X, receive a free Y" sales. Sometimes the freebie is a refractometer.

Agree that cold crashing for 3-4 days would be easier than racking. Its easy to do with 1 gallon jugs, as you stated above.

I still rack beers to secondary on occasion and am always amazed at how much yeast falls out just 1-2 hours after racking. Even on beers that you thought were clear before racking, they can get quite a bit clearer by racking to secondary. I think the clearing benefit after the first 24 hours or so is fairly neglible. Secondary does offer a nice aging vessel if you can minimize the headspace.

solbes said:

I still rack beers to secondary on occasion and am always amazed at how much yeast falls out just 1-2 hours after racking.

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That's just highly-flocculant yeast that you picked up from the bottom during racking. There's no scientific basis for the belief that moving the beer from one big jug to another will cause yeast that was stubbornly in solution to suddenly precipitate out.

kombat said:

That's just highly-flocculant yeast that you picked up from the bottom during racking. There's no scientific basis for the belief that moving the beer from one big jug to another will cause yeast that was stubbornly in solution to suddenly precipitate out.

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I'm going to have to disagree on that one. Its true I might pick up some of the yeast from the bottom of primary, but not nearly that much.

Yeah, if anyone is aware of NB's frequent sales, it's me. My 5-gallon Better Bottle, Dark Star Burner and a fair amount of my kits were all purchased because of good sales NB had. The best one I think was that $14.92 sale on certain kits for Columbus Day. Got 3 good kits for less than $50!

I just got a Steelhead pump with $60+ worth of stainless QDs/ball valve thrown in!

solbes said:

I'm going to have to disagree on that one. Its true I might pick up some of the yeast from the bottom of primary, but not nearly that much.

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So what was it then? Yeast staying in suspension because they were afraid of the yeast cake at the bottom, and when moved into a clean carboy they relaxed and dropped to the bottom?

What's your scientific explanation for why yeast would stay in suspension in the presence of a yeast cake at the bottom, and then rapidly drop out in the absence of one?

FWIW I've since stopped using a secondary all together except with sours or anything else I bulk age. I dry Hop in primary too. I just bottled an esb Sunday, at no point did I filter during the brewing process and aside from not disturbing the cake during transfer to my bottling bucket did I attempt to minimize anything going anywhere.
The top half of all the bottles are crystal clear and ands by the time they are ready to Crack open, they'll be almost completely clear. I know this also dependant on yeast strain but it's been working just fine fir the last 2 years on 90% of my recipes.

kombat said:

So what was it then? Yeast staying in suspension because they were afraid of the yeast cake at the bottom, and when moved into a clean carboy they relaxed and dropped to the bottom?

What's your scientific explanation for why yeast would stay in suspension in the presence of a yeast cake at the bottom, and then rapidly drop out in the absence of one?

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Good question honestly. I'm basing this on empirical evidence, and I don't have a solid theory for why it would be true. Probably with the fluid motion of the beer and into a receiving vessel.

Maybe something good to do would be to ferment beer in two 1 gallon jugs. Rack one, leave the other. Compare visual clarity of the primary only and the secondary at 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week from racking.