Primary and secondary

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BrokeCollegeStudent

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Ok, umm... tell me why you guys use a primary and a secondary. Why not just leave it in one carboy for 2 week or 3 weeks, then bottle?

Again, i havent made any beer yet, so im just asking a question, not trying to be a smarta$$.

And, when you transfer from one carboy to a bucket or whatever, how do you do that without getting any of the crap from the primary to the secondary?
 
You rack to secondary to get the beer off the crap at the bottom of the primary. (trub)
Use a racking cane with a U bend so you rack above the trub.
You can leave it in primary for longer if you want and not do a secondary. Some do. It's up to you.

www.howtobrew.com is a great place to read up on all this.

I take it you are thinking of starting brewing. It's a great hobby, goodluck.:mug:
 
Yea, ive heard its awesome, plus you get to do some chem without taking classes. So anyway, how do you rack it, you dont pour it i wouldnt imagine. But in Homebrew.com or whatever, they dont tell you about secondarys, or at least what i read.

So does it alter the flavor? I love porter, and my girlfriend loves Raspberry.... sooo the only way shes going to let me do this in the apartment is to make a raspberry stout or porter.

Got any help? should i repost that question?
 
There are lots of ways to make a fruit version of your favorite beer. Simplest might be using a fruit puree, a lot of homebrew suppliers will sell a sanitize fruit puree that you can pour right into the fermenter along with the boiled wort. You don't have to worry about sanitizing the fruit which can lead to other complications, plus you don't have the bulk fruit, seeds/pits, etc to fuss with when racking. On the other hand, most folks tend to feel that using fresh or fresh-frozen fruit yields much better flavor. There are a number of threads on this forum that address this, plus Joy of Homebrewing has some recipes for fruity beer.
 
BrokeCollegeStudent said:
Yea, ive heard its awesome, plus you get to do some chem without taking classes. So anyway, how do you rack it, you dont pour it i wouldnt imagine. But in Homebrew.com or whatever, they dont tell you about secondarys, or at least what i read.

So does it alter the flavor? I love porter, and my girlfriend loves Raspberry.... sooo the only way shes going to let me do this in the apartment is to make a raspberry stout or porter.

Got any help? should i repost that question?

When racking to secondary, I would HIGHLY recommend getting an autosiphon (you can order one from Northern Brewer). An autosiphon makes the process really easy. You definitely do not want to pour as you want to avoid splashing. Introducing air into the beer at this point can cause oxidation which will introduce off-flavors.

Really using a secondary is not necessary for most beers unless you want to focus on making a nice clear beer. I use secondaries for all my beers since the people I share them with do not like cloudy, murky beers.
 
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