DangerDad

Recipes 

I'm brewing a brown ale with a 3 week fermentation and 2 week conditioning I am very new and have read quite a bit but I don't understand why I have to transfer after a week. BTW all grain with hme

homebrewdad

Recipes 

You don't have to transfer at all if you don't want to. I think that a lot of recipe kits push transferring so that stores can sell more carboys.

Most will agree that you only have to transfer if racking onto fruit, wood chips, etc, or for bulk aging... and even then, you may not HAVE to transfer.

That being said, I secondary all of my beers, as I get less trub inmy bottling bucket that way. However, I never transfer earlier than 3-4 weeks. Let fermentation finish, let the beer clean up, before you do anything to it.

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Homebrew Dad - blogging about making my own beer and raising a lot of kids.
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Fermenting: Yorkshire square brown ale
Bottled: Belgian golden strong ale, Yorkshire square brown ale, Leffe Blonde clone, imperial nut brown ale

sirmeowsalot

Recipes 

It's recommended because by transferring to a secondary you're suppose to end with a clearer end product leaving the big yeast cake behind and then having it settle some more.

I've never found it necessary and have never been disappointed with the clarity of my beers. Unless I'm adding fruit, hops, spices, etc into the beer then I wont bother with a secondary. In fact mainly for fruit, or if I'm adding extra sugars and

I don't want the yeast starting back up. It's an extra step to worry about sanitation, aeration at this point, contamination.

b-boy

Recipes 

I only transfer to seconadary when I add fruit. I even dry hop in primary. I've never had any problems.

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Never underestimate the potential of someone who refuses to act their age.

Brewnoob1

Recipes 

I have about 25 brews under my belt so still consider myself new....however I've never done a secondary. It's not needed for most brews. I will be using a secondary for the first time on my next brew simply because I'll be adding fruit. But unless you're adding anything like fruit or oak chips for flavoring, I don't think it's really needed for most things.

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Keg #1: Pink Panty Droppin Punch (Strawberry Blonde)
Keg #2: Yooper's House Ale
Kegs 3-5: Empty

Ferment #1: Redhook Blonde Clone
Ferment #2:
Ferment #3:

On Deck: MORE BEER!

dstranger99

Recipes 

I just leave mine in primary for 1 month, then rack on bottling day.

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Primary: Hop Head Double IPA
Bottled: Amber Ale, West Coast Pale Ale, Raspberry Wheat, American Light, Murphy's Stout, Pumpkin Ale, Chocolate Stout, Boston Red, IPA Hoppy, Boysenberry,Cookie Brown Ale,Jakes Brown Ale (NB), Cascade Blonde.
Upcoming: Another Brown Ale.........

I love Yooper........

Clonefan94

Recipes 

I only use secondary for, as others have stated, dry hopping, fruit, or if I don't have an open keg and need a fermentor. The only thing I will note though, is that I have gotten considerably clearer beer on the first pull from the tap when I secondary then keg, as opposed to primary to keg. Still though, it's not enough of a difference to make me always secondary. If I let it sit for at least 3 weeks, before transferring to a keg, even the first couple of pulls really aren't cloudy enough that I wouldn't drink them, it's more of an esthetics issue.

Varmintman

Recipes 

I secondary pretty much everytime but only because I harvest the yeast cake and figure the sooner I can get it into the fridge and put the yeast to sleep the better.

klindeman

Recipes 

I like doing a secondary, as others have said, because it helps clear up the beer. My first batch after only primary had an almost grainy taste to it, but all my other brews doing a secondary we're fine.

This also makes it so I can free up my primary and ferment another batch while I'm still doing secondary.

DangerDad

Recipes 

Perfect I'm using no additions so I'm not going to transfer this one I also have clarifier tabs so now it's just about drinking it I guess :-)