When to pitch to secondary fermenter

I'm new to brewing so please excuse my newbyness

I'm have just started a Creme stout. The recipe calls for it to ferment in the primary fermenter for 5 to 7 days and transfer to secondary so it can clarify for 5 to 7 days.

I am reading John Palmer's "How to Brew" and he suggests letting the your beer sit in the fermenter for 2 weeks, not the 1 week that most recipes call for.

My questions are: Does this still pertain to a brew that is meant to be racked to secondary fermenter? Am I defeating the purpose of racking to a secondary by letting it sit for that extra week?

All insight welcomed

Archie

As you get more familiar with brewing, and start reading a lot more here at HBT, you'll find two things:

1) Any instructions that come with a kit that pertain to timelines for fermentation should be thrown away and forgotten forever. In many cases, the timelines they give are adequate - but only adequate. More time generally = better beer.

2) Even Palmer, these days, recommends skipping secondary altogether. Most of the reasons he gave in How to Brew are based on the quality of yeast that was available 10-15 years ago, not on what's available today. The secondary is great if you want to rack your beer onto fruit or wood chips or something along those lines, or if you really need to free up your primary fermenter so you can brew again sooner. Outside of that, just leave the beer in primary for extra time.

For a creme stout, you're likely to see good results if you just leave it in primary for 2-3 weeks (3 if you can bear the wait, 2's the bare minimum you want to go), then make sure you've hit your final gravity, then you can bottle.

Thanks for the reply. I spent about an hour looking through old posts and figured out that 2 to 4 weeks in the primary is probably best. I probably should have done some digging before posting because the info in this forum is just amazing. My first batch of brew will be ready next week so waiting for the Stout shouldn't be an issue.

Archie

Secondary isn't really necessary unless you are doing some extra treatment to the beer (wood chips, other flavorings, etc)..A lot of people on here even dry hop in the primary fermenter. I leave my beers in primary for 2-3 weeks at minimum, then transfer to a bottling bucket when I'm ready to bottle.


Also, just another little tip:

Pitching = Dumping your yeast into the beer. Ex.) You pitch your yeast after chilling and racking your beer to the bucket/carboy.

Racking = Transferring your beer from one vessel to another

AAIndigo said:

Thanks for the reply. I spent about an hour looking through old posts and figured out that 2 to 4 weeks in the primary is probably best. I probably should have done some digging before posting because the info in this forum is just amazing. My first batch of brew will be ready next week so waiting for the Stout shouldn't be an issue.

Archie

Click to expand...

No worries, and don't ever hesitate to ask a question here. Sure, most of 'em have already been asked, and as you read more you're going to learn answers to questions you don't even know to ask yet.

But there's a lot of good folks here, and we all went through learning the stuff you're learning now. Very few folks here will tell you to search rather than ask a question - sorry if my first answer came across that way!

[ Very few folks here will tell you to search rather than ask a question - sorry if my first answer came across that way![/QUOTE]

I didnt take it that way at all. I just stumbled on my answer after posting this and felt like a complete newb.

Thanks for your help
Archie