Secondary Fermentation and Carbonation

Hello,

I am on my first batch of beer and have a few questions. I am making Coopers Cerveza. Today is the day that the directions say to bottle it. I am thinking of doing a secondary fermentation mostly just to ad a little clarity to the beer. The directions say to bottle the beer, add sugar, and let the bottles sit for 2 weeks. Does that mean that I could put the beer in the secondary fermenter for two weeks, add the sugar for carbonation there, then have it finished when I bottle? Also, can I just use corn sugar for carbonation? That is the sugar I used for primary fermentation.

Thanks a lot!
-C

First thing you should do is take a sample of the beer with a sanitized vessel like a measuring cup, turkey baster, or wine thief (most recommended); check the hydrometer readings today and then check it again in two to three days to see if you have hit your final gravity mark and/or if the hydro-reading has changed (if changed, fermentation is still occurring).

Second fermentation/Bottling - Majority opinion is going to tell you that secondary fermentation is not needed; that is generally good for either dry hopping or adding fruit to your beer (or in some cases aging a complex beer like an imperial stout and making room so you can ferment additional beer).
What you are going to do is boil 5 oz. of priming sugar/corn sugar in two cups of water for about five minutes to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved and sanitized. After cooled, pour the 2 cups of priming water into bottling bucket and then siphon/rack the beer on top of that. Bottle the beer and then cap. Let the beer condition for two to three weeks, but you can pop one open at one week to see how the beer progresses (i.e. educational purposes).

You can't carbonate in secondary, and then bottle. The carbonation would either go out through the airlock or blow up the vessel it's in. Trying to bottle carbonated beer would create a foamy mess, even if you could do it.

If you're bottling, the only way to safely carbonate the beer is to do so in the bottle by adding priming sugar when bottling.

Go ahead and ignore the directions that came with the kit, they are notoriously horrible. Here is an easy set of directions that we put together that will give you a lot better results:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/beginner-extract-brewing-howto-99139/

Notice that what FensterBos said above is discussed in step #7. You have to be absolutely sure that fermentation is complete before bottling for two principal reasons: 1) your beer will taste a lot better; and 2) you could end up with exploding bottles if you put still-fermenting beer in bottles. If you don't have a hydrometer, just go ahead and buy one or order one online - leaving your beer in the primary for a few more days will certainly not hurt it.

As to secondarying for clarification, I'd say that's a fine idea. It will help you avoid all of that gunk at the bottom of your primary when it comes time to bottle, and it will give your yeast a little more time to finish their work. However, you shouldn't add sugar to your secondary. If you put the sugar in your secondary, the yeast will go ahead and eat it up over the course of two weeks. Then, if you transferred it to the bottle, your beer would just sit there and remain flat. You add the sugar right before bottling so the yeast will consume it while it's in the bottle and capped air-tight. That way, the CO2 produced from fermentation will be forced to be absorbed by the beer, which creates carbonation.

I'm guessing your kit came with a pre-measured amount of sugar for carbonation. That's cool, but in the future, consult this site to figure out how much sugar you'll need to carbonate your batch properly:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Finally, check out Revvy's very helpful thread on bottling - it will tell you everything you need to know!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Good luck, and congrats on your first batch!

Good point, Yooper and TTB-J

Wow! Great Info! Thanks a lot guys!

If there are still bubbles coming up in my airlock, does that mean it is definitely still fermenting? Ill take hygrometer readings but I was just curious about that.

cfry said:

If there are still bubbles coming up in my airlock, does that mean it is definitely still fermenting? Ill take hygrometer readings but I was just curious about that.

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No. I just bottled a pale ale on Sunday that was still bubbling (~once every minute or two, though I didn't time it) after 21 days, and it was definitely done attenuating.

The most common explanation I hear is that there is still CO2 in solution, and it is slowly escaping. Sounds reasonable to me.

That said, if there are bubbles coming out of your airlock several times a minute, I would have trouble believing it wasn't still fermenting. I wouldn't ever rely on it, but there's just no way you are going to get that much residual CO2 escaping.

How long can you safely leave your brew in a secondary? I moved my brew about two months ago then got very ill. I just didn't feel up to working with it. It has been sealed in the secondary with an air lock the whole time. It shows no bactierial growth or any other nasties. Is it still safe?

bulldog said:

How long can you safely leave your brew in a secondary? I moved my brew about two months ago then got very ill. I just didn't feel up to working with it. It has been sealed in the secondary with an air lock the whole time. It shows no bactierial growth or any other nasties. Is it still safe?

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Virtually indefinitely, as long as it is sealed and you don't mess with it.

+1 jsweet. The only problem I could think of is oxidation; as long as there wasn't too much head space I think you'll be alright.