Secondary fermentor

Hi all
I am in the process of my first ever brew ( northern brewer irish red extract) I wanted to hear everyone's opinion on the secondary. I have heard many mixed reviews. Will it really clean my beer up that much? Or is the risk of infection not worth the reward? Thanks for any advice!

There are two risk factors brewers are looking to avoid with transferring to secondary. The first is increased chances for infection, the second is oxidation.

Most everything I've heard here is that a secondary vessel is not needed unless you're aging or adding additional flavoring agents (oak cubes, fruit, vanilla beans, etc.).

I haven't racked to secondary on either of my first two brews and they both turned out surprisingly clear... I would not worry about transferring to secondary unless you plan to age or add additional flavoring agents. I would not count dry-hopping as additional agents, do that right in primary.

This has been debated amongst HBT members for years, and the general consensus seems to be: do what makes you feel comfortable. Some are strongly against secondary, some are strongly for secondary, some are strongly in the middle, all of whom claim to be making great beer. So it's all about which camp you want to be in. Here's an article that details an experiment testing whether or not secondary is necessary:

http://brulosophy.com/2014/08/12/primary-only-vs-transfer-to-secondary-exbeeriment-results/

I agree with thunderpants brewings. Find what works for you. This is a heavily debated topic. ...

If you want to want know how various brewers do it, for me I don't see any benefit of putting it into secondary unless im keeping it longer than a month. If you keep it longer than a month you risk bready flavors from the break down of the dead yeast cells, so a lot of brewers rack to secondary after a month. But if you are only doing a red ale, I don't see any reason to even keep it in the fermenter for as long as a month.

Thanks for the info. I guess I will just have to try both.

Fwiw, I rack to secondary if I'm adding fruit or some other addition that will kick off a second fermentation, or if I am dry hopping, or on the very rare occassion that I bulk age a beer for months. Otherwise, I rack from primary directly into bottling bucket or keg.

Cold crashing a beer, whether in secondary or primary, is the best practice I do for clearing beer.

I used to rack all beers to secondary, but now I just go straight to bottle most the time and let condition in the bottle. There is no difference, even with stronger (7%+) brews. I've never made a beer which requires post fermentation adjuncts yet so not needed to properly secondary condition. I will be making some lager and will leave that in secondary for a while.

I did make a barleywine with an ABV of 8.2% and out of primary it was great, a little "green" but I thought sticking it in secondary would probably help clear up the flavour, plus I can't be bothered to bottle it right now. I put it in 2ndary for 2-3 weeks and it tasted worse afterwards, so I bottled and have left it to condition. It might be because when going to 2ndary the vessel needs to be full with no oxygen, in this vessel there was about 2 litres or so of air.

I rack all my beers regardless of style (though to be fair my wheats had fruit additions). However, I rack for this reason: it frees up the primary for another brew! Now, after getting tired of waiting, I did finally buy a 2nd bucket so I no longer have to wait 3 or so weeks between brews, but I would try racking once and see how it goes for you. Like pretty much every question - you ask it and you'll get 100 different answers. Experiment for yourself and see what works for you. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

eadavis80 said:

I rack all my beers regardless of style (though to be fair my wheats had fruit additions). However, I rack for this reason: it frees up the primary for another brew! Now, after getting tired of waiting, I did finally buy a 2nd bucket so I no longer have to wait 3 or so weeks between brews, but I would try racking once and see how it goes for you. Like pretty much every question - you ask it and you'll get 100 different answers. Experiment for yourself and see what works for you. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

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If you had a vessel to rack into, why would you need to wait to brew again? Why not use what you were using for a secondary as a primary fermenting vessel and skip the racking altogether (fruited wheat beers aside)?

Just curious.

Psylocide said:

If you had a vessel to rack into, why would you need to wait to brew again? Why not use what you were using for a secondary as a primary fermenting vessel and skip the racking altogether (fruited wheat beers aside)?

Just curious.

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I do the same (again, only if I need to free up the fermenter) because I ferment in a 6.5G carboy, and rack to a 5.5G carboy. If I start with the 5.5, I blow off too much good beer!

Edit: I also rack if I'm lagering.

Black Island Brewer said:

I do the same (again, only if I need to free up the fermenter) because I ferment in a 6.5G carboy, and rack to a 5.5G carboy. If I start with the 5.5, I blow off too much good beer!

Edit: I also rack if I'm lagering.

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That makes sense, I suppose. I guess I've never blown off a ton of good beer... not enough to make me want to start in my 7 gal and rack to the 5.5.

Psylocide said:

That makes sense, I suppose. I guess I've never blown off a ton of good beer... not enough to make me want to start in my 7 gal and rack to the 5.5.

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I put in 5.5 into the fermenter, so it's a must.