Secondary

From what I have read it seems most don't use a secondary with their brews. I understand the pros/cons of secondary's especially the sanitation. I have easy access to 5 gal water jugs and could use them as a secondary to store/age more batches. I only have one fermenter but could have many secondaries. Any thoughts? Pros/cons?

indyabn said:

From what I have read it seems most don't use a secondary with their brews. I understand the pros/cons of secondary's especially the sanitation. I have easy access to 5 gal water jugs and could use them as a secondary to store/age more batches. I only have one fermenter but could have many secondaries. Any thoughts? Pros/cons?

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If your purpose is using a secondary is to free up your fermenter, so you ca. Make more beer, go for it!! I think most of us skip secondary merely because it is unnecessary

DON'T DO IT! The 5 gal water jugs are made of a plastic that is o2 permeable, and that represents serious storage problems for your beers. They will oxidize and taste like wet cardboard. Stick to PET (Better Bottles) or glass carboys for long term storage/aging.

Well I get the cleaner, less solids thing with a secondary. If you do it right the advantages of using a secondary is offset with the skunk factor if done wrong. But for me, I can get 5 gal jugs about all day... One batch at a time.... Or 4..... Lol. Could do more.... I have had my kit for a week, opened it and inventoried... Waiting to make sure I do it right.

Really??

I'll have to check the bottles.... If PET they would be ok?

Yup

Great! Thanks. Could have ruined a batch or 2

No problem.

Trying to see why the secondary can't be used as a primary.

If you plan to use the water bottles for short time clearing of your beer like for a week or two then the oxygen permeability of the plastic will be of minimal concern but for a long term storage such as you might want for a barleywine the concern becomes much greater. For these you use glass.

For a fermenter they would work for a small batch but there wouldn't be any headroom for a 5 gallon batch (often 5.25 to 5.5 gallons) and you would lose quite a bit of beer through your blowoff tube. I have one of the water bottles that I have used for secondary of a fruit beer (too small, lost fruit through the airlock) and as a fermenter but I won't use it for a fermenter again as cleaning was tough.

badbrew said:

Trying to see why the secondary can't be used as a primary.

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It can, but you'll need a blowoff. Headspace is lacking in secondaries to reduce exposure to oxygen for bulk aging.