Secondary Fermentation Quandary

How much more important is racking to a secondary with an AG brew? I just did my first one last Sunday and I have a little bit of a problem. I was planning to buy a glass carboy from my local homebrew shop for a secondary today, but it turns out they haven't got any in stock at the moment. With my previous partial mashes I would always rack to a secondary plastic fermenter, but that one is occupied at the moment (with my second AG brew) and I also want to stop using a bucket for a secondary fermenter. So will leaving the beer on the lees for another week cause any serious flavor problems? My suspicion is that the sediment in an all grain is a little more potent than that of an extract brew. I really don't want to leave it sitting there on top of that sediment, but at the moment the only alternative to a secondary is to rack the beer straight into my stomach.

Just bottle it! If it has been in the ferm for a good week, and your FG is where you want it, just bottle it. The bottle is a secondary fermenter too. I actually asked Charlie Papazian himself the same question, and he said just to bottle the thing.
good luck!

If you brewed it on Sunday, then its only been in primary for 5 days? Is that right?

Even if its not, I leave my brews on the yeast for 3 weeks at a minimum. I have found it leads to a better finished product. I'd just leave it be.

I usually just let it sit in primary until I'm ready to bottle and for the most part it's worked out great.

I'm another one that believes it should be left in the primary for at least 3 weeks although I usually leave it longer than 3 weeks. After that you are good to go to bottle. Please don't bottle after only 1 week, we don't like bottle bombs around here.

Your flavors will be better for leaving it on the trub longer. Yeast's job isn't just for fermenting. If you leave it on the yeast cake after it's eaten all the sugars, it will clean up it's waste and off flavors and clear your beer.

I leave mine in the primary for 2 weeks then keg.

I leave my beers 3-4 weeks, usually 4 then bottle...

If you search on here for "long primary" or No Secondary, you will see the hundreds of threads on here discussing this..

Your will be better for your patience.

But are you willing to listen to someone who wear's a funny hat on his avatar?

Actually, Revvy and the others are right on -- since I've been doing 3+ week primaries (with or without a secondary), I think my beers are better.

Let it sit and you will get a better brew. Give it some time to clean up. I sewcondary everything, but many never secondary.

Thanks for the input. I'm gonna let it sit for another couple weeks then.

What kind of fermenter does everybody use for long primary? Does it matter whether you're using plastic or glass? And with a long period before bottling, are there any issues with bottle conditioning?

Apologies for the long list of dumb questions...

I have a stainless fermenter and a couple of glass carboys, i don't think it really matters. The key is patience, as many have already mentioned, the beer will be better if it is left alone for 3-4 weeks.

Eastside

Greenglass said:

What kind of fermenter does everybody use for long primary? Does it matter whether you're using plastic or glass? And with a long period before bottling, are there any issues with bottle conditioning?

Apologies for the long list of dumb questions...

Click to expand...

Doesn't matter.....I use buckets and betterbottles...and there's no issues with bottle conditioning..that's a whole seperate thing, regardless of whether or not you primaried or secondaried...

and any mmore questions, I encourage you to search...you will see, like I said earlier, that we've discussed this more than probably anything else lately...

Thanks for the help, and yes, I've been reading a few of the threads on the subject. Interesting stuff. Looks like I need to get myself another bucket...