Newbie has a couple questions.

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catch22

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Hey all,I am brewing my first batch and it is in primary fermentation stage for about a week.When transferring to secondary fermentation(carboy)does this need to be siphoned out leaving the gunk on the bottom?Or can it be poured directly into the carboy?Thats all I have for now,any help is greatly appreciated,as I am hoping for a positive outcome from this.
Thanks,Paul
 
You want to siphon. Oxygen is your enemy at this point and pouring it would add add oxygen to your beer. And leave the stuff behind. It's not all that important really, but since your are performing this step, leaving the stuff behind is the goal.
 
Siphon. You want to leave that gunk (trub and yeast) behind. Is there a particular reason you are using a secondary? You will get a lot of opinions on this.....

Jason
 
Typically you want to siphon it out leaving as much gunk behind as possible. That is dead yeast, protiens, hop material etc... and you don't want it in secondary. A lot of people on here don't secondary however. There is a large debate over this. You could just leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks then bottle and it wouldn't hurt anything.
 
a week seems a bit short but check your hydrometer readings. siphon don't pour to transfer. oxygenation is a bad thing now
 
And you don't have to rack to a secondary if you don't want to. It's split about 50/50 but a lot of people will leave brews in primaries for up to a month then rack to bottling bucket. Totally up to you
 
Don't even bother racking (moving) to a secondary (there are alot of threads that talk about that very issue.) However, if you do, DON"T poor it. This will cause oxidation and will lead to off flavors in your in your beer. You should buy a auto-siphon. This will allow for a slow transfer and you will be able to leave all of the sediment in the primary. Long story short, just leave it in the primary until you are ready to bottle.
 
Congrats on your first brew!

To answer your question, you do want to leave that gunk on the bottom of your primary. That is mainly yeast that is there, but also includes a bunch of stuff left over from fermentation like your cold and hot break.

If you look around this site more you will notice that most brewers here no longer transfer to secondary. If you wanted to you could just leave it in the primary for another 2 or 3 weeks and the beer will be great.

The original thought behind moving a beer to secondary was to get the beer of the yeast cake, in the belief that yeast would autolysis After it was done eating. It is no longer the case and it is actually better in most cases to leave the beer on the yeast cake so the yeast can clean up after themselves, and provide a cleaner tasting beer.
 
Thanks guys.I was trying to follow directions for the kit,but it seems I may be better off just leaving it in the primary.I should mention I am brewing a lager and it has been in a warmer temperature for about 5 days.At what point is it suggested to introduce a cooler temp?
 
What type of lager? True lager or an extract kit that says "lager" on the side.
What was the yeast? Lager ferrmentation is different than an ale.

Either way you are probably better leaving it in the primary if it's already been in those temps for a while now. If this is a true lager, you will have already missed the primary fermentation guidelines for a lager.




Thanks guys.I was trying to follow directions for the kit,but it seems I may be better off just leaving it in the primary.I should mention I am brewing a lager and it has been in a warmer temperature for about 5 days.At what point is it suggested to introduce a cooler temp?
 
Thanks guys.I was trying to follow directions for the kit,but it seems I may be better off just leaving it in the primary.I should mention I am brewing a lager and it has been in a warmer temperature for about 5 days.At what point is it suggested to introduce a cooler temp?


Usually a true lager should be fermented at cooler temps(50-54 deg) right from the start. After fermentation completes you rack it into a secondary and lager it at temps around 34-40 degrees
 
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