JVHBass

Recipes 

Hi,

I'm looking at brewing a beer and I've been told it is definitely better if it is racked to a secondary fermenter. I don't have one of those but I was thinking I could rack it to a bottling bucket then clean and re-sanitize the primary fermenter and rack it back in. Is that a good idea or am I missing the purpose of a secondary fermenter in the first place?

Thank you

Stix

Recipes 

Just leave it in the primary. Secondary is not necessary. I think its only good to secondary to add fruit or long term aging.

jiggs_casey

Recipes 

There are a TON of threads that pertain whether or not to secondary. I only use them if I am looking to flavor my beer with fruit (by placing the fruit into the secondary and then racking my beer onto the fruit) or if I am working on a beer that I want to be crystal clear, usually by dissolving gelatin, placing it into the secondary and racking my beer onto it. Truthfully, I don't bother with trying to clear my beer much anymore. Brew it, bottle it, drink it...

As far as using your bottling bucket as you described, I wouldn't. In my opinion, you're just exposing your beer to a lot of unnecessary steps that could do more harm then good.

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mux

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Yeah, I would leave it alone. The less I touch it the better.

Revvy

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I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread.

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer, Jamil Zainasheff, and all of us Weigh In .

Pretty much every question has been answered in there, there are podcasts and articles and other citations, and that's where the discussion is ongoing.

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JVHBass

Recipes 

Awesome, thank you for the replies everyone. The main reason I ask is because I'm thinking of doing a peanut butter porter and the extract recipe I have calls for adding dry peanut butter and cacao into the secondary fermenter. It seems like I might be able to get away with just putting it in the primary?

On a side note, I was directed to PB2 dry peanut butter and they have a version where it is dry peanut butter and chocolate mixed together. Would that be ok to use?