gillhamms

Recipes 

To go back a few post...

Why would you decide to use a secondary when adding Oak vs say, dry hopping? What about crushed mint? Would the addition of either of these require a secondary carboy when the beer would only be in the secondary for 7-10 more days before kegging?

I usually skip the secondary, but wonder if I shouldn't in these cases. The mint and the oak are going in different beers.

thanks!

Johnnyooze

Recipes 

I usually rack to secondary, but I have a Light american ale style in the primary now that i think ill leave in for 3 weeks and then bottle. Ill see if i can tell any difference from the batch thats about done bottling now. Interesting read...

rwberne

Recipes 

Have been reading this and related threads for some time now, and have finally drunk Revvy's Kool Aid - or maybe it was Sweet Stout. I'm going to retire my secondary for awhile, switching approach to primary for 4 weeks or so and then bottle. So here's my question - I know that the same stuff that settles out in the primary will settle out in that extra time in the primary, but with all the extra trub and yeast cake at the bottom of the primary, any suggestions when siphoning to be sure I don't draw gunk into my bottling bucket? I want my beer to be as sparkling as Revvy's!

Sudz

Recipes 

I've started sitting in the primary for the full schedule and had your concerns initially. What I do is make extra brew and stop the siphon before it starts to pull in trub. Wasting a half of gallon makes a big difference in keeping things pure and the cost or effort to make an additional 1/2 gal is nil.

I've done this for the past four batches and honestly can't see a difference between the secondary process or primary only.

There may be other reasons for using a secondary but I haven't seen it. I was also cold crashing with gelatin for a while and now I just cold crash. So I have had two things going on over the same period but the results are undistinguishable from my prior process. Had there been a difference, I wouldn't have been able to say which change was responsible but since there wasn't a notable difference, I can conclude neither process change had a negative effect.

Unless or until I learn otherwise, I'm adopting the primary only for modest brews and dropping the gelatin.

Mavtech

Recipes 

I free hand my siphon to help keep the yeast out of the keg. I hold the end of the siphon just under the top of the beer and go down with it. The only time it touches the bottom is for the last couple inches.