primary to secondary timing?

hey guys. quick question. Ive brewed up the Orange Pale Ale/Cascades Ale recipe in the database here numerous times. Recipe calls for 10 days in the primary, dry hopping in secondary for 10 days and then bottle or keg. I understand the dry hopping in the secondary for 10 days, but every batch i've brewed so far hit FG in primary within 4 days. Should i leave it in primary for 6 more days or just transfer to secondary and dry hop?

thanks.

jeff

hydrometer

Starderup said:

hydrometer

Click to expand...

Ok, I'll twist the question a bit: If I've reached a stable final gravity in 4 days (and I know this due to using a hydrometer), is there still a benefit to leaving it in the primary for an additional 6 before racking to secondary(in order to dry hop)?

p.s. and lets assume that we don't want to dry hop in the primary even though thats possible and some people do it.

Starderup said:

hydrometer

Click to expand...

thanks, i have one and use it heavily. that does not answer my question. i already stated that I hit my FG particularly fast on this specific recipe.

There are other things going on beyond the making of alcohol. So, while FG might be reached in 4 days, there is a lot of clean up work the yeast are doing beyond that. You could move the beer when bubbling slows down, since that conditioning will still happen in a second fermenter. So, 6+10 would work. There is nothing magical about 10 days.

There is no magic number of days, but usually the longer it sits the better it will taste. The yeast are really good at cleaning up after themselves, and I feel they do a much better job when the beer is left on the yeast cake. I personally wait at least 4 weeks before bottling/kegging, and have been well rewarded by my patience. If you do decide to transfer it sooner, I'd extend the secondary so that the total fermentation/conditioning time is still at least 20 days.