Using Primary as Secondary also

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

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

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.

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

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.

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?