Do I really need a glass carboy to secondary ferment

I'd like to start doing secondary fermentations but I only have plastic right now. Is it OK to run a secondary ferment in a plastic fermenter and do my dry hopping there? Or, do I need a glass carboy?

No need for glass. Plastic will work just fine.

you could also just toss the hops in your primary afer fermentation is done

AZ_IPA said:

you could also just toss the hops in your primary afer fermentation is done

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But don't I want to get the beer off the yeast cake and trub?

mcjake said:

But don't I want to get the beer off the yeast cake and trub?

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It depends on how long you'll leave it. If you ferment for 2 weeks and dry hop for a week, you should be okay....

but, like avaserfi said, you can just rack to another plastic bucket to dry hop if you want

Right on. I read somewhere that you want your secondary fermenter to be smaller so that there is less oxenegation, is this a crucial factor? Hell, I even read that people put chips of dry ice in their carboys to push all the oxygen out. Do I need to worry about this?

I want to put my airlock on the secondary fermentor right?

mcjake said:

Right on. I read somewhere that you want your secondary fermenter to be smaller so that there is less oxenegation, is this a crucial factor? Hell, I even read that people put chips of dry ice in their carboys to push all the oxygen out. Do I need to worry about this?

I want to put my airlock on the secondary fermentor right?

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anytime you open your fermenter, rack your beer, or do anything to it that exposes it to the environment, you risk adding in oxygen. But, it's usually minimal if your technique is good. I wouldn't do the dry ice thing....

and yes, you need your airlock (filled with cheap vodka or sanitized water) on your secondary.

Definitely don't worry about the secondary being smaller. Secondaries tend to be smaller than primaries, not because it is essential to have a smaller secondary, but instead because it is helpful to have a larger primary in order to allow for Krausen expansion. If your secondary is large enough to hold your fully fermented batch then it's big enough. As for your airlock: yes you want to put your airlock on the secondary. For that matter, you also want to always have either an airlock or a blow off tube in your primary as well.

Definitely don't go throwing things like dry ice into your secondary. It is not necessary and a waste of money.

BackBayBrewing said:

Definitely don't worry about the secondary being smaller. Secondaries tend to be smaller than primaries, not because it is essential to have a smaller secondary, but instead because it is helpful to have a larger primary in order to allow for Krausen expansion.

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I'll be buying a set of glass carboys soon. Should I go ahead and get a smaller one for the secondary? Or would it be OK to get the larger one incase I want to have to batches in the primary fermenter at the same time? (Plus, I think they may be on sale at my LHBS).

Yeah, I thought you would want any stage fermenter air-locked. I was just reading something recently that kept referring to the carboy being hard sealed and I thought that was odd so I wanted to check if I was way off base or not.

Thanks for all the help guys!

Maany of us on here don;t even use secondaries. So leaving it on the trub is fine.

I primary longer in buckets and then rack to kegs. The brew can sit in there for a while with dry-hops if I want. I just kegged 10g of Dubbel that sat for 5 months in primary and it tasted just fine for being in plastic for that long.

mcjake said:

I'll be buying a set of glass carboys soon. Should I go ahead and get a smaller one for the secondary? Or would it be OK to get the larger one incase I want to have to batches in the primary fermenter at the same time? (Plus, I think they may be on sale at my LHBS).

Yeah, I thought you would want any stage fermenter air-locked. I was just reading something recently that kept referring to the carboy being hard sealed and I thought that was odd so I wanted to check if I was way off base or not.

Thanks for all the help guys!

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Also I cant reccomend the Plastic Better Bottles enough....

I will go glass on something thats going to be sitting for MONTHS other then that is a BB....

If you are really worried about Oxygen exposure due to the headspace in your fermentor, then I wouldn't even rack to a secondary. Dry hop in your primary for the desired time then bottle/keg. If you practice good sanitation techniques and pitch healthy yeast, you can leave that beer in the primary for months.

michaelm said:

Also I cant reccomend the Plastic Better Bottles enough....

I will go glass on something thats going to be sitting for MONTHS other then that is a BB....

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+1 for the Better Bottles. No glass for me.