Secondary Necessary for Chocolate Stout

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tre6mafya

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So I made a chocolate stout, extract with specialty grains. It's been sitting in the primary for 10 days now and I was wondering if a secondary was necessary before bottling and letting them sit to carb for three weeks. I got the supplies at my LHBS.... I would bottle on day 14
 
There a few reasons to use a secondary and your stout doesn't fall into any of them but I wouldn't want to bottle a stout on day 14 either. I'd prefer to wait for day 21 or even day 28 to bottle because you have dark grains in your stout that take quite some time to mature, for the flavors to all come together. Being on the yeast cake can help speed the process of maturation. Even with 28 days on the yeast cake your stout will still take more time yet to get really good. Expect 2 to 3 months to hit its peak flavor.
 
The more I learn the more I realize that a secondary isn't all that needed. That being said any big beers or dark beers (stout, porter) that I do go in a secondary for a couple of weeks; lagers will do their time in the second as well. With a your beer I would for about two weeks. If you are impatient go ahead and bottle/keg it now. It will still taste good but not as good as it could.
 
Thanks for all the advice, I'm going to let it sit in the primary for a little while longer and then let it bottle condition until the flavors blend to my liking.
 
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