HawaiianBrew

Recipes 

I also use a secondary to make sure I don't pick up any off favors from the suspended waste on the bottom. Also doing the transfer will help to polish up the brew before you bottle condition. I leave the brew in the primary for the first 12 to 14 days, move to a secondary and I leave that for another 10 to 14 days depending on the brew, than the final transfer to the bottle. The brew has a lot of time to mature and clarifie once in the bottle. Just a though of course. Different brewing technics for all.

techbrewie

Recipes 

Secondary will give you a clearer product and you'll get far less sediment in your bottles if you do it. You can get a good product without it but you will have a better product if you use a secondary. Everything conditions better in bulk. I ALWAYS let fermentation finish in the primary though. There is no point in racking to secondary before then. Now that I have a keezer I've gotten in to the habit of cold crashing my carboy a few days before kegging (always after my beer has been sufficiently conditioned) as well and my beer has never been clearer.

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Brew long and Prosper... May the wort be with you... Yippeekayay master brewers... You had me at free beer.

DangerDad

Recipes 

To rack or not to rack... Hahaha I am doing hop additions (re read my ingredient list) and I like clear beer so I guess I will do the secondary fermentation, might as well follow directions till I know more. Thanks all btw any brew clubs in Orange County CA how do I find them

RM-MN

Recipes 

I dry hop in the primary and I get clear beer. I just leave the beer in the primary for 2 weeks, dry hop for one and then bottle. A couple weeks later my beers are usually clear.

techbrewie

Recipes 

While you can do this it doesn't necessarily mean your beer will be done sooner. Once fermentation finishes fermentation the alcohol flavor is harsh. Beer needs time to reach peak flavor. Some styles more than others but there is no way around it. Might as well dry hop after primary because beer conditions better in bulk anyways.

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Brew long and Prosper... May the wort be with you... Yippeekayay master brewers... You had me at free beer.

jethro55

Recipes 

Am finding the 3 week primary to be key in producing a better taste sooner - depends on the beer I guess. But I find that a 3 week primary tastes decent after a two week secondary and then two more weeks in the bottle. So the total time is still 7 weeks nominal. Not important to secondary for taste according to many accounts here. But for me, age is critical; taking 6-8 weeks from yeast pitching to some really awesome beer.

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Civilization begins with Beer !

Primary: nothing in the pipeline at the moment
Secondary: some summer beers are imperative
Bottled: Nut Brown, Listermann's Cream Ale, American Pale Ale, Holiday Ale, HopNog, Honey Malt Cream Ale, Irish Stout, English Brown Ale, BIAB English Ale, India Black Ale, Bengal Juice, BIAB Cherry Wheat on the cherries, Belgian Pale Ale, Island Hefe on Mango, Island Hefe on Apricot (and dang -these are awesome beers)

Next Up: Hop farming

techbrewie

Recipes 

I suppose it completely depends on the style of beer brewed. but regardless letting beer sit on fermentation byproduct for too long at room temp will eventually seep off flavors in to your beer. this wont happen within 3 weeks time, but i wouldnt primary for much longer unless the style specifically calls for it.

The best resource that lays it out without bias I've found is HBT's own wiki.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Conditioning_the_Beer

Also whether you notice the difference in flavor can depend on other varying factors including but not limited to serving temp, carb level, beer complextiy, avb %, etc.

All I am saying is that chemically beer changes during conditioning and I have to meet someone who says it's for the worse (unless you let it sit too long, which is a long time). If you can't tell the difference then it doesn't matter one way or the other :-) Find a process you like and stick with it. Repetition and consistency is the only hard guideline to great beer.

__________________
Brew long and Prosper... May the wort be with you... Yippeekayay master brewers... You had me at free beer.