Secondary Fermentation

Hello folks --

Secondary-related question:

I'm 2 batches into my Home Brewing life. As per the recipe that I was given with my initial kit, I use a primary for about 6 days, then go into my secondary for 10-20 days.

But I've just read that a secondary is both not really necessary, and very much only really for aesthetic purposes.

So, let's say I'm interested in keeping my beer rather cloudy, and I want to cut down on secodnary fermentation time -- how does that affect my schedule?
Should I leave it in the primary longer?
Should I leave it in the bottles longer?

Secondary fermentation isn't unnecessary per se, its just not necessary for typical batches of beer. If you are aging on oak, fruit, or other similar practices, this should be done in a secondary. However, the standard batch you can (and probably should although this is often highly debated here) just ferment in your primary and skip the secondary altogether. As far as your schedule, its important to understand that the yeast don't consult a calendar when fermenting beer. The instructions that come with kits are extremely outdated and typically oversimplified to avoid confusing new brewers. Fermentation can take a day or two, or several weeks. It depends on a number of factors, information you can find elsewhere. For a standard ale (let's say in the 1.050 OG range) you can expect fermentation will likely be done within a week, but it is good practice to leave it on the yeast for at least for a week or two longer - or more - in order to clean up some off-flavors that may still be present in the beer. The only way to know whether the beer is done is by taking gravity readings. Also, in regards to clarity you can have perfectly clear beer without secondary, so your schedule shouldn't really affect clarity.

My standard practice is to ferment in my primary and leave it there for a minimum of about 3 weeks, then I start taking gravity samples to determine whether the readings have stabilized.

Thanks,

I actually just purchased a hydrometer, so I can be a little more accurate with my future batches.

I have a follow up -- The instructions that I have says that if you leave the eer in the primary too long, it makes it taste kind of off. But that's not what I've been reading elsewhere.

Does dry-hopping count as conducting a secondary fermentation? If you keep your ale in the primary, do you let it age for a bit then put in the dry hops?

rubenr3 said:

The instructions that I have says that if you leave the eer in the primary too long, it makes it taste kind of off.

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Those instructions were probably written in the 90s when this was accepted as common wisdom among home brewers. The fear of autolysis in homebrew (the off-flavor from leaving the beer on dead yeast) is really not an issue unless you leave it on the yeast for a REALLY long time, were talking many months. This is a real issue for commercial brewers because of the high pressure in the large fermenters that the yeast are subjected to, but not for us and our 5 gallon batches. Do not worry about leaving it on the yeast, you won't pick up any off-flavors from that.

Dry hopping doesn't count as a secondary fermentation, but where I think you might be confusing this is that many people will "dryhop in secondary", meaning that they will transfer their beer from whatever they did their primary in into another vessel (probably a carboy) and then add their hops. This isn't a bad practice but you can dryhop in your primary, just wait until the fermentation is completely done and there is no longer krausen floating on the top of the beer. For me, I might leave the beer for two weeks after pitching the yeast, then add my dry hops, seal it up and leave it for another week before bottling.

You're awesome. Thanks! Next one's on me.

I still use the secondary to clear the beer because I really suck at racking and I'm pretty OCD about the presentation of my beer.