Secondary

I've gathered over the last while that racking to secondary is a matter of opinion. And it may clear your beer

However if I leave my batch in primary after fermentation for a week will it clear in there too? Any advice is appreciated, cheers

eccipoo said:

I've gathered over the last while that racking to secondary is a matter of opinion. And it may clear your beer

However if I leave my batch in primary after fermentation for a week will it clear in there too? Any advice is appreciated, cheers

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Sure will and a week may not be enough. There is no problem leaving your beer in the fermenter for 3 or 4 weeks or even longer. I left a brown ale for 9 weeks and while it didn't look anything different than brown, there was so little yeast sediment in my bottles I could hardly see it yet the beer carbonated like it should.

My beers seem to benefit from 4 weeks in primary. I usually don't secondary unless I am short on keg space.

I observed over time that after a beer hits FG,it took 3-7 days after that to clean up any by products of fermentation & settle out clear or slightly misty.

Thank you kind sirs. Good to know, cheers

rm-mn said:

sure will and a week may not be enough. There is no problem leaving your beer in the fermenter for 3 or 4 weeks or even longer.

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.

+1

+1 RM-MN, Im at 2 to 3 week in primary for most of my beers, lighter beers 2 weeks, heaver beers 3 weeks, this seems to be working very well for me, Im now going to start secondarying again cuz I have all 10 kegs full and want to keep brewing/aging my beers, I will be aging in secondary's untill a keg is empty.

What a dilemma to be in lol

Cheers

Personally I stopped using a secondary for brewing a long time ago...
I find that using a secondary just expands the chances for oxidation and contamination....

I had a American Wheat get infected because of a secondary carboy 4 years ago... that was the last time I used a secondary.

Once you transfer your 2 week old primary beer post fermentation, and then transfer it to a keg. How long can it sit and age in there before adding some carbonation to it? Or should this be done straight away

eccipoo said:

Once you transfer your 2 week old primary beer post fermentation, and then transfer it to a keg. How long can it sit and age in there before adding some carbonation to it? Or should this be done straight away

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I let mine age for months in the keg, only thing I do is purge the full keg with co2 and leave it under pressure, I do this right after transferring the beer to it.

I only start to carb a keg after its been in the kegerator over night, that way the beer is good and cold before introducing the co2.

Cheers

CBelli said:

Personally I stopped using a secondary for brewing a long time ago...
I find that using a secondary just expands the chances for oxidation and contamination....

I had a American Wheat get infected because of a secondary carboy 4 years ago... that was the last time I used a secondary.

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What if you're adding things like fruit or something? Still in primary?

Hello said:

What if you're adding things like fruit or something? Still in primary?

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There is the exception to the no secondary as when you add fruit you add sugars that will ferment and you actually have a secondary ferment. Other exceptions would be oaking, or the long term aging you might to with a barleywine. However, most ales don't need to be moved and each time you move you risk something happening to degrade the beer.