How long?

Just racked to my secondary, wondering how long before it starts fermenting in there. No sign of bubbling yet.

Cass

You won't likely get the violent bubbling, etc. of the primary..it will be slow and subtle

It may never bubble at all. The secondary isn't really for fermenting (which ideally has finished in the primary)--it's for clarification and bulk aging. It would probably be less confusing if it were called a clearing tank, or "bright tank" as it's known in commercial brewing lingo.

Lets get the terms straight first - homebrewers often refer to a "secondary fermenter" incorrectly. Clearing tank, conditioning tank, or bright tank are more appropriate terms if you are not repitching yeast and trying to actually further ferment your beer.

Ok, off my high horse - if your beer fermented out rather completely in the primary fermenter, it shouldn't restart fermentation after racking. Sometimes it will have a brief moment of activity in its new container because you roused the yeast into action during the transfer, and there is just a bit of fermentable material left in your beer, but that is not a true secondary fermentation.

My beers hardly ever ferment out anymore once I rack them. I typically let them finish completely in the primary, then move them over for clearing and aging (since they can stay in the second vessel for a long time without worry). Once I get around to it, I'll keg and carb (or bottle if it is something that needs a lot of time to condition).

Is it always necessary to use a secondary (or clearing/brightening/finishing tank)? Or is it mostly for clarity, presentation and/or enhancing flavor characters?

The reason I am asking is because I have read some threads here that have eluded to people bottling directly from the primary.

Ok good, because it still hasn't had any action. It was done fermenting in the primary like 4 days ago, but I waited the entire week before racking to the secondary.

cormi3r said:

Is it always necessary to use a secondary (or clearing/brightening/finishing tank)? Or is it mostly for clarity, presentation and/or enhancing flavor characters?

Click to expand...

It's not necessary at all. You can make beers that are just fine without a secondary carboy. Most people here do use them, though. They do a good job of clearing up your brews. Also, if you rack after a week, there is much less chance of getting any off flavors from the beer sitting on the trub for too long.

You can bottle from the fermenter. This means a lot more gunk in the bottles and longer settling times once bottled. It doesn't speed up the aging/conditioning process in the slightest, you still have to wait.

I keg from the fermenter, but I'll leave a batch in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks.

Ok next question... since this is for clarifying, is it normal for my beer to be dark brown at first? I'm brewing an IPA which is supposed to be golden, but so far its just a dark brown. My wort was golden, but after the primary fermentation, my beer turned a dark brown. Is this normal?

Are you looking at it in a fermentor? If so it will look a lot darker after fermentation has settled and a lot of the yeast of settled out. (All the yeast swirling reflect a lot of incoming light, now that they've settled out the light gets lost into the abyss of the fermentor. Look at the beer through the racking cane hose when you rack or bottle it, it will be much much much lighter.

Cass said:

Ok next question... since this is for clarifying, is it normal for my beer to be dark brown at first? I'm brewing an IPA which is supposed to be golden, but so far its just a dark brown. My wort was golden, but after the primary fermentation, my beer turned a dark brown. Is this normal?

Click to expand...

The shear front-to-back depth of your carboy makes the color darker.

Take a sample into your hydrometer and you'll get a better idea of the true color. It will lighten though...the longer you leave it in the secondary.

When racking to the secondary it looked like a light golden colour (I sampled some and it was good, just not real bitter yet). But in the carboy its a dark brown. How come?

Cass said:

When racking to the secondary it looked like a light golden colour (I sampled some and it was good, just not real bitter yet). But in the carboy its a dark brown. How come?

Click to expand...

During primary fermentation, a lot of yeast are in suspension. All those billions of yeast cells reflect a lot of the light going into the carboy back to your eyes and it appears a lighter color. After primary fermentation winds down a large percentage of that yeast settles out. Much less yeast results in much less light reflected back to you. A lot of that light is absorbed by the beer, so much less light is reflected and beer looks darker.

When you see it through a racking tube there is a lot less beer in the tube to absorb light, so you see light coming through all directions of the tube. Because much more light passes through the beer and reaches your eye, it looks lighter. If you had a tube the width of your fermentor, it would look the same color b/c a much larger volume/width of beer absorbs more light, so less reaches your eye and it looks darker.

So don't worry. My beers that are golden look brown/amber in the carboy. The brown beers look black and the black beers look..........well I don't know what the hell they look like, but they're real f'n dark!

The most important sign is your beer tasted good, the color will be just fine when it's in the glass. Grab a 6er, kick your feet up and relax. You're beer will be much lighter than it looks now and it will taste good too.

Technically a "Bright tank" is a cold conditioning vessel.

If kept at fermentation temperatures there can be additional fermentation, (though very little) and other yeast munching activities that turn undesirable compounds produced during initial fermentation into other less annoying compounds.

I know this doesn't pertain to the topic

You know....I am already in love with this forum. 1. Simply because you guys/gals are so damn active. 2. All of my newbie questions are being answered, already.

Thanks.

One last question... Will it continue to bitter up while in the carboy? When I tasted it, it wasn't bitter at all. I really hope so.

Cass said:

One last question... Will it continue to bitter up while in the carboy? When I tasted it, it wasn't bitter at all. I really hope so.

Click to expand...

Beer doesn't tend to get more bitter as it ages...but less bitter as the flavors mellow.

However, keep in mind that there is a big taste difference between young, warm, flat beer and beer that is cold and carb'd.

The beer won't get more bitter, but with bottle conditioning and chilling, it will get a much "crisper" flavor.

Wait for the final product before trying to tweak your recipe.