Secondary fermenter: not the usual question

william_shakes_beer said:

OK: I've read the threads about to ssconday or not, and I've decided what's best for the Beer I choose to brew.

The general consensus is that secondary is only recommended if one is adding fruit or oak chips, or something similar. The question is: why does one rack to secondary for fruit or oak chips? What is the harm in adding items such as those to primary after the initial fermentation is complete? How does the dormant yeast cake affect those late additions?

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Yooper said:

No- the reason for doing a secondary is more than that! A "secondary" is done in a carboy usually, which reduces the headspace and is good for aging. Wines are always done like this- primary in whatever vessel, usually not even airlocked, just covered to keep it away from bugs, and then the secondary is a carboy and the headspace is reduced.

However, if you're adding fruit or things that are hard to remove, it's not uncommon do do this in a wider fermenter, like a bucket, so that the fruit can be removed after the time on the fruit is over.

If people notice most of the "infection threads" on this forum, it usually is because there is headspace left for a long period of time. You rarely see an infection in a topped up carboy.

I'm not talking about a week or two in a bucket, but instead long term aging. Once fermentation stops, and the beer is no longer producing co2 to help protect the beer from a wide headspace, you don't want to keep the beer in a wide vessel (like a bucket) for aging.

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helibrewer said:

+1

I generally use oak cubes for their consistant shape and toast quality...and I go about 3 months with oak (1 oz) so the reduced headspace is critical. The key to long term oaking is to continually taste to avoid over-oaking. With stouts, I start the oak in primary with the yeast.

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onthekeg said:

Another reason for not dry hopping or oak in a primary as the excess yeast will coat the items you added to the primary and their full effectiveness won't be allowed. In essence it will be like putting your oak chips in a plastic bag as they will get coated with yeast.

If you wanted 12 weeks on oak, the best way would be to oak in a keg and shoot CO2 into the headspace then move to another keg or bottle.

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onthekeg said:

Another reason for not dry hopping or oak in a primary as the excess yeast will coat the items you added to the primary and their full effectiveness won't be allowed. In essence it will be like putting your oak chips in a plastic bag as they will get coated with yeast.

If you wanted 12 weeks on oak, the best way would be to oak in a keg and shoot CO2 into the headspace then move to another keg or bottle.

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helibrewer said:

This is actually common practice in wine, in fact whites are often fermented in oak. When done with cubes, the cubes are moved over from the primary into the brite tank. With reds, they go in oak during MLF only because of the cap issues with reds.

Beer yeast is the same basic critter, check out Shea Comforts (www.yeastwhisper.com) podcast about Oak and wine yeast in beer making on Brewers Network.

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