My First Secondary - Questions

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LouisianaVince

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Hey Folks,

For my first 2 brews, I used a brew bucket for primary and then racked to a bottling bucket where I primed and bottled.

With this batch (Irish Red Ale from an extract kit), I used a carboy for primary (what fun to watch!), and I plan to rack to the old fermenting bucket for secondary. The question is...what's the process?

This beer does not require any dry hopping. Do I just siphon it into be the bucket, leaving the trub in the carboy, and close the bucket with an air lock on top (after sanitizing everything, of course)? Or do I need to add anything? I read somewhere about additing 75g of sugar when racking to secondary (not for carbonation, but to re-activate the yeast). Is this what most people do? If so, I need to get some appropriate sugar before I do this.

Thanks!
 
So if I understand this, instead of just bottling after the fermentation is done you're racking to a secondary, or a clearing tank. The process is exactly the same as on your first batch when you racked it to the bottling bucket, except you're not going to add any priming sugar. Only add that when the beer is going to be going in bottles immediately.

"Secondary" is a misleading term. There's no actual fermentation going on, it's just to let more particulates and yeast fall out of the beer so it's clearer. Where did you read you need to add more sugar?

Also, a lot of people use the 1-2-3 rule. One week in primary, two weeks in secondary, three weeks in bottles. It's like the pirate code though, it's not a hard and fast rule, more of a guideline :D
 
Here's a link to the first page that came up when I Googled "Racking to Secondary".

http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/HomeBrewingTips/HomeBrewingTips.html

That's where the 75g of sugar came from. So, since I brewed last Sunday, and since the air lock has been quiet since Thursday, I should be able to rack to secondary tomorrow night (I'm too tired tonight). Leave it two weeks, then bottle. Right?

Oh, and thanks for the quick reply!
 
Straight into the secondary and it can sit there for as long as you can stand it.

BTW, I don't know about that website....I think part of it is copied from a book I have.
 
Just an update...

I racked to secondary for the first time. I took a reading (1.020), and tasted what I tested. This is going to be some good beer. It was 8 days in primary. I plan to go 14 in secondary then bottle.
 
i read that adding unflavored jeletin into the wort after placing it in the primary will help settle out more particles and result in a clearer, finer, beer. has anyone else heard of this?
 
yeah surf you can use gelatin.....check out the wiki for a quick run down on clarifiers...

in all honesty though beer will fall clear if given enough time (I say this after adding isinglass to my beer today!) so it's up to you and it's not really needed

As far as the secondary goes.....you don't really need to. If you're adding fruit or dryhopping then it's a good idea but there have been a lot of talk lately about not doing secondary leading to better beer because it allows the yeast time to clean up the larger sugars.....you still give it the same amout of time though 3wks...maybe longer....if you go for like months then you're looking for trouble but who really leaves there beer for that long? and if you do then secondary is a good thing....for your average gravity beer though it's not necissarily needed and may possibly be detrimental....it's all up to you though

like the pirate code (i like that one!)

take it easy
 
Just wanted to note that I bottled yesterday. I got 51 12oz bottles, and I tasted a little. The flavor is good, but I'm wondering about the alcohol content. I think I missed my FG by a bit. No big deal. Now I just have to leave it alone in that closet for a few weeks.
 
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