I'm part of a small homebrew club at my college. We're trying to present a topic each meeting for our members to think about. I'm going to present the pro/con discussion thats oh so familiar to this board of fermenting in a primary fermenter to completion v using a secondary fermenter. I guess my question to those who adhere to using only a primary is "What is the advantage of bulk aging higher gravity beers for months at a time in a secondary compared to just bottling?" I'm just trying to fully understand Revy's last point here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/second-ferm-racking-128440/#post1438252
Oh and since I have your guys attention, I have a club member who asked about brewing a barleywine. He read something about adding a second packet of yeast sometime after he transfered his brew to conditioning tank. Is this right? I haven't brewed something like that.
and perhaps I'm taking out of context. If so, let me know.Me personnally I leave nearly all my beers in primary for a month and then bottle and only use secondary, if I am lagering in the cold for several months, adding something like hops or fruit or oak to the beer to flavor it, have had a lot of fruit like pumpkin added to the boil that carried over into the fermentor, or if it is a huge beer that I feel benefits for months of bulk aging time.......
Oh and since I have your guys attention, I have a club member who asked about brewing a barleywine. He read something about adding a second packet of yeast sometime after he transfered his brew to conditioning tank. Is this right? I haven't brewed something like that.