agitating the secondary

I was listening to the Jamil Show and they mentioned they agitated the secondary but didn't mention why.

My guess is to settle the hops that are floating?

Anyone do this? How often? How much to you shake or jiggle your carboy?

I don't agitate the secondary - I want the beer to settle and clear at this point. Best wishes,

Jim

I subtley agitate my carboy during secondary for two main reasons....kinda like an off-centered spinning top.

1. If my gravity seemed a bit high after primary and had been in primary for longer than 10 days, I hope to re-suspend some of the yeast so that it can dry out a bit and 'clean-up' or 'condition' the beer a bit more.

2. When x-ferring the beer from primary to secondary you end up with a bit of headspace in the carboy. By agitating the carboy ever so slightly you create a blanket of CO2 into the headspace....helping to protect your beer from oxidation.

I'd be really interested to hear why other people agitate their secondary.

22415 Brewery said:

1. If my gravity seemed a bit high after primary and had been in primary for longer than 10 days, I hope to re-suspend some of the yeast so that it can dry out a bit and 'clean-up' or 'condition' the beer a bit more.

2. When x-ferring the beer from primary to secondary you end up with a bit of headspace in the carboy. By agitating the carboy ever so slightly you create a blanket of CO2 into the headspace....helping to protect your beer from oxidation.

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These are both interesting. The first one almost contradicts the 1 st reply in the thread. If the gravity seems a bit high wouldn't you just keep letting it do its thing until you reach FG? Or would you have had a stable gravity for a couple days and racked over even though it seemed high?

The second one makes sense in theory although I have heard that oxidation isn't an issue unless it has been sitting in there for > 1 month?

Is there any reason to agitate it to settle the hop particles? When I give mine a gentle jiggle some hop pellet particles sink.