Rack to secondary - ferm complete or almost complete?

My question is about when exactly to rack a beer to secondary. I'm brewing my first batch with a secondary right now and the directions say to rack when fermentation is almost done but not completely done. Everything I've read on these forums says to rack when fermentation is done. What's up with the discrepancy?

StophJS said:

My question is about when exactly to rack a beer to secondary. I'm brewing my first batch with a secondary right now and the directions say to rack when fermentation is almost done but not completely done. Everything I've read on these forums says to rack when fermentation is done. What's up with the discrepancy?

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That sounds strange. The purpose of secondary is to clear the beer, not ferment. I have always rack to secondary only after primary is done. Where are these directions from ?

Old directions meant to get you beer faster, not necessarily better. Or, that's the usual response around here. I'd wait an extra week to transfer, if you want to transfer at all. Many people brew great beer without transferring to a secondary fermentor.

Honestly, I'd do whatever is easiest for you, as there probably won't be a very large difference one way or the other. You'll find out, over time, what method works best for you.

Wing those are directions from brewer's best, holiday ale to be specific. I found it strange too, and obviously it's safer to just rack after it's all done unless you've got a blow off hose going. Weird that it would specifically note that fermentation should not be completely done though. Guld I know the secondary isn't totally necessary, I've had good success without it. I just figured I'd use it since I just picked it up along with the kit. Probably good practice too for my next kit which I think will involve dry hopping.

You can easily dry hop in primary without issue. I've done it, as have others, with solid results. Racking to another vessel, that's not either the serving keg, or bottling bucket, should be kept to a minimum. Just because some kit has it on the sheet doesn't make it right, necessary, or wise. I blame the aged method on the sheet in this case. Another reason I'm glad I don't use kits.

In the future, I would ignore any instructions after it tells you to chill the wort.

Secondary fermentation is a touchy issue with most brewers . I personally do it every time I brew as I like to add a lot of diffrent things to the secondary (i know you can do this to primary to just the way I like to do it). Just make sure everything is clean and sanitized and you won't have a problem. I transfered a wake in bake stout clone I cam up with after 10 days in primary and added some coffee and vanilla beans and it started fermenting within 30 min of transfer and has been fermenting for 7 days now.

At golddiggie. Just curious why you say to ignore chilling the wort? You want to chill it as fast as you can once the boil is done to pitch your yeast as quick as possible any temp above 90 degree will kill your yeast. I use a ice bath (since I don't have a imerssion chilled) then pour my 3 gallons of really cold water and wort into my glass carboy and it gets the temp down to 65- 70 degree in 20min every time .

solo103 said:

At golddiggie. Just curious why you say to ignore chilling the wort? You want to chill it as fast as you can once the boil is done to pitch your yeast as quick as possible any temp above 90 degree will kill your yeast. I use a ice bath (since I don't have a imerssion chilled) then pour my 3 gallons of really cold water and wort into my glass carboy and it gets the temp down to 65- 70 degree in 20min every time .

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He was saying to ignore the directions that come after chilling the wort.

Lol. Yeah I was wondering that. Interpretted it wrong

I do that but haven't ever read to do it. I wait until there is just a touch of fermentation left. As little as possible but just enough to make sure to rebuild the head of CO2 in the secondary. That or if I need the ferm chamber for a new batch.

solo103 said:

I transfered a wake in bake stout clone I cam up with after 10 days in primary and added some coffee and vanilla beans and it started fermenting within 30 min of transfer and has been fermenting for 7 days now.

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Working on one of these right now. It's the CYBI recipe so no vanilla beans but I did get the wnb coffee blend from the brewery.

This does bring up a point about transferring a little early too. If you get a little yeast stall, a transfer can help wake it back up. It gets it off of the trub too, for what it's worth.