Considering second fermenter

I currently own a Coopers Brew Home Kit and have been reading about secondary fermentation. I am curious to purchase a 6 gallon glass carboy but I have a few questions:

How the heck do you get the beer siphoned into the glass carboy without affecting the beer or spilling it?

Whats a good time frame to start secondary fermenting? My guess is second or third week of fermenting is this too long?

If you want to secondary the best thing you could buy would be a Auto Siphon.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/auto-siphon-1-2.html

5-10 days in primary and 30-60 in secondary. Time is your friend.

RumRiverBrewer said:

5-10 days in primary and 30-60 in secondary. Time is your friend.

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Seems like a little long for secondary. Unless it is a really big beer I don't think 60 days in primary would really be needed. I can see maybe 2-3 weeks.

To transfer beer from one fermented to the other, you need a racking cane or easier an auto siphon. Well really you can us a piece of tubing and just make a siphon out of it like you would to empty a fish tank. But honestly just buy an auto siphon.

As to the time frame of fermenting usually you need a hydrometer to know when fermentation is done. Or you can just leave it in primary for a week and two in secondary then to the bottles for at least 3weeks.

But like many of us do you can just leave it in primary for 3 to 4 weeks and bottle.

Read how to brew by john Palmer it's free online, just google it, and you will find a lot more answers.

Just seconding GodsStepBrother's recommendations and doing the googling for you.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-4.html

To each their own and all that but I don't secondary anything that doesn't need dryhops or oak chips or something.

1 month for anything over 1.050, 2 months 1.070+

Yes, it's tough waiting but time pays off.

I do not even use a secondary for dry hopping, I just chuck the pellets right in once fermentation is done.

How can I go from the coopers fermenter to a 6 gallon carboy without oxidation issues?

Just use a longer hose with the auto siphon so you don't get splashing and you should be fine.

You actually want the aging/bright tank to be smaller than your primary. Closer to the actual batch size in volume. So if you brewed a 5 gallon batch (or typically will) then just get a 5 gallon carboy...

BUT, as already mentioned, except in a few cases many of us are dropping the racking to another vessel. I'm getting much better brews since going to longer secondary times (on the yeast cake)... I've gone 6 weeks so far, but have a couple of bigger brews that I'm planning on leaving on the yeast cake for 6-8 weeks. I'm pretty sure the actual fermentation will be complete, so I'll just taste test it every week (or two) after about 4-5 weeks to see where it's at. WHEN it's ready for the next step, that's when I'll rack it. I'm considering aging on some oak cubes, which I'll probably do in Sanke kegs. Once that's done, IF I want to age for a few more months, I'll probably rack again, or I'll make sure I can pull the oak cubes out of the keg, and then just leave the brew in there (that's the more likely scenario)...

Properly using either an auto-siphon, or racking cane, will get you the best chance of no oxidation issues. But, if you're not actually adding flavor elements that are best done off the yeast, or plan on an extended aging time frame, just leave the brew in primary until it's ready for bottles/kegs.

Brian, you will get a lot of debate here on whether or not to use a secondary. I personally always use one, and after you see what is left in it after bottling/kegging you may agree. Anyhow, get an auto-siphon, real cheap, and the way to prevent contamination is to sanitize it. The way to prevent oxidization is to be careful. I usually put my primaries on a shelf, then just gently siphon into secondary. Once the primary is off the shelf, I put the secondary on the shelf for kegging/bottling. this way the gunk (trub) is not agitated and get in your beer. From there I put it in a keg, and let it sit for a day or three. Then I carb it. Do what suits you, that is what works for me.

AussieBrewerInColorado said:

Brian, you will get a lot of debate here on whether or not to use a secondary. I personally always use one, and after you see what is left in it after bottling/kegging you may agree.

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What would drop out in a secondary that wouldn't drop out in primary during the same time period?