Secondary Fermentation?

What IS secondary fermentation? I know what a "secondary" is for clearing, and everyone says it's not actually secondary fermantion...

Northern Brewer's kits, some of them specify secondary fermentation... are they talking about an actual process, or just bulk aging in a "secondary"?

it's a misnomer.

It's not really fermenting. It's settling out, clearing up, "cleaning up after itself"
Some folks swear by them, others leave them in the primary until bottling.

your choice.
Secondarys are great for dry-hopping a nice IPA, however.

Read this and the accompanying links in the article and, it covers secondarying or choosing not to secondary and opt for what many of us do, long primarying instead...and give you enough info to make your own mind up.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/multiple-questions-about-secondary-fermentation-140978/#post1601829

secondary fermentation overlaps with and continues after primary fermentation. the yeast are cleaning up after themselves. during primary fermentation all kinds of by products are being produced and are cleaned up during secondary fermentation. if the recipe recommends more than a 2 week fermentation i would rack it to a secondary after 2 weeks.

you can safely leave beer on yeast for up to a month.

So the consensus is that Northern Brewer just made the classic mistake of calling a secondary vessel "secondary fermentation"?

Boondoggie said:

So the consensus is that Northern Brewer just made the classic mistake of calling a secondary vessel "secondary fermentation"?

Click to expand...

Not just northern brewer, but a lot of places/things....like I said, read the article and the sub links and you will see how confusing it can be...

Boondoggie said:

So the consensus is that Northern Brewer just made the classic mistake of calling a secondary vessel "secondary fermentation"?

Click to expand...

Sort of, I don't see it as a mistake. Secondary fermentation is the right name in the sense that most people now what is required to perform a 'secondary' on their beer. It's just a classic misnomer like 'tin-can' everyone knows what you mean, but it's not made of tin, it's aluminum.

It is confusing though!