Too Early for Secondary???

Brew (Winter Ale) is currently in my 5g glass primary. Been in for 4 days, just pulled the blow off hose and attached my airlock. Normally I would wait at least 5 days before transfering to my secondary, but I have to leave on Sunday night and wont be back until Thursday. Should I go ahead and siphon to my secondary on Sunday, or let it go another 5 days in the primary? Thanks for any light you can shed on this little dilemma....Phil

Leave it in the fermenter. The extra time won't hurt it.

david_42 said:

Leave it in the fermenter. The extra time won't hurt it.

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Yup.
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here here
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Thanks guy's. I was afraid it my pick up some bad flavors from the dead yeast on the bottom.

ScoutMan said:

Thanks guy's. I was afraid it my pick up some bad flavors from the dead yeast on the bottom.

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Noticeable autolysis flavors take months to develop at room temperatures with a decent yeast. I've left a beer in primary was 3 weeks and that was one of my cleanest best tasting beers.

Have a good trip and don't worry about your beer!

Is secondary absolutely needed? Or is it simply a way to get the beer to clarify a bit before racking to the bottle for conditioning?

catnip1970 said:

Is secondary absolutely needed? Or is it simply a way to get the beer to clarify a bit before racking to the bottle for conditioning?

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Nope, but if you are not going to put it into a Secondary, you'll want to leave it in the primary for 12 - 14 days so you don't get any bottle bombs.

Thanks for that info. I'm only on my second batch. My first one I left in primary for 8 days and then bottled...hey, I was impatient. Now that I actually have a secondary I'll rack to it after 7 days for the oktoberfest that's in there now and leave it in for another 7 before priming and bottling. Does that sound like the right process or should I leave it in one of the ferms longer than the other? Even with all the mistakes I made during my first batch it came out great. Thankfully, brewing is a very forgiving art.

The usual "rule" for ales is 1-2-3. One week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, and 3 weeks in bottle/keg. These are just guidelines, but sometimes your schedule will change this by days, or even a slow fermentating batch can change this. The main thing to remember is patience to allow the beer to condition(age) so that the flavors have a chance to mellow from the "green beer" flavors that you will notice after the primary fermentation. The replies above show there can be alot of leeway in the schedule and still make great clear beer as long as good sanitary methods are followed.