Secondary fermentation = bottling?

I hear people doing secondary fermenting, but what is the purpose? is that where you pour it from your big carboy into another one and let it sit there again, then bottle it after that?

The purpose is to further clarify the beer and get some extra age under its belt. If you were to let the beer sit in the primary to long (this time frame is debatable)then the yeast that has settled on the bottom will nolonger ferment but give the beer "off" flavors. this is why you transfer to a secondary.

Note "transfer," not "pour." You need to siphon (quietly) from one to the other, so that you do not oygenate the beer (which will cause off-flavors down the line). Pouring from one container to another would also stir up the trub in the primary, which would render moot the whole reason t move it in the first place.

Basically, you just syphon the beer into another sterilized contianer with an airlock..leaving the yeast gunk undisturbed on the bottom of the fermenter.....you do not add more yeast/sugar or anything like that to the secondary.

Having a secondary also frees up the primary for another batch !

Most people use the 1-2-3 rule..1 week in primary-2, weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottle.

Cheers.

thanks guys, cleared things right up!

Yeah, I use the 1-2-whenever the hell I want rule.

I don't see the need to wait 3 weeks before cracking open a bottle. I'll usually have a test or two after the first week, just to make sure things are progressing nicely, and once week two hits it's fair game. I mean, it's already five weeks old, and I'm only going to drink a small percentage of it before the third week hits anyway, so who cares?

Call it a clearing or bright tank & the problem with "secondary fermentation" goes away. Some day I'll figure out why homebrewers call it a secondary, maybe it's a hold-over from wine making.

Along those lines, I've always wondered whether you need to purposely rack a little bit of trub when you're bottling, so that there's something in the bottles to ferment the priming sugars and carbonate. That's what I do...just a small amount at the end. I've worried that, after 2 weeks of sitting in secondary, there's not enough yeast suspended in the liquid to produce sufficient carbo.

Is this right? My "sensei" who taught me how to brew says he also purposely racks a little bit of trub. Thoughts?

More yeast than you can imagine is suspended in your beer. If you have a proper racking cane you'll get a LOT of yeast that is suspended more toward the bottom.

david_42 said:

Call it a clearing or bright tank & the problem with "secondary fermentation" goes away. Some day I'll figure out why homebrewers call it a secondary, maybe it's a hold-over from wine making.

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I try to think of it as my "secondary fermenter" rather than secondary fermentation. No new fermentation is going to begin, unless you roused the yeast or something. The same slow, endstage fermentation is continuing and you just moved it to a clean vessel. Without explaining it to myself this way, the terminology would start bugging me. Maybe I'm anal. Probably.

Thinking that no fermentation is going on in your secondary is wrong, IMHO.

The yeast are still active and cleaning up some of their byproducts and there has to be some complex sugars left over for them to chew on.

I just transfered a wheat beer over to secondary 6 days ago and there is about 2 bubbles per minute, so the yeast are feasting on something in there.

Exo said:

Thinking that no fermentation is going on in your secondary is wrong, IMHO.

The yeast are still active and cleaning up some of their byproducts and there has to be some complex sugars left over for them to chew on.

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I agree that fermentation is going on. It's just not "secondary" fermentation. No new yeast was added. It's the same fermentation, continuing in a new vessel--thus, "secondary fermenter". That's what I meant about it being a little anal terminology thing. Some English ales and most lambics actually undergo a real "secondary fermentation" when a second strain of yeast is pitched (I think at bottling time?). Anyway...whatever we call it, racking our ale into a new vessel and letting it continue with it's business sure makes for good brew. Cheers!

Evan! said:

Along those lines, I've always wondered whether you need to purposely rack a little bit of trub when you're bottling, so that there's something in the bottles to ferment the priming sugars and carbonate. That's what I do...just a small amount at the end. I've worried that, after 2 weeks of sitting in secondary, there's not enough yeast suspended in the liquid to produce sufficient carbo.

Is this right? My "sensei" who taught me how to brew says he also purposely racks a little bit of trub. Thoughts?

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I'm worried about this too. I put finings in with the secondary so when my beer was ready to bottle it was crystal clear. then after a week in the bottle I tried one and there was hardly any carbonation at all. Maybe I just havent left it for long enough but I'm worried that my whole batch will be undercarbonated.

Mishkin said:

I'm worried about this too. I put finings in with the secondary so when my beer was ready to bottle it was crystal clear. then after a week in the bottle I tried one and there was hardly any carbonation at all. Maybe I just havent left it for long enough but I'm worried that my whole batch will be undercarbonated.

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As long as you put enough sugar in there and they're stored at proper temperatures, the yeast will eat and multiply until all the sugar is gone.

I put my finings in during the boil, I've never had a problem with carbonation.

Maybe you need to rethink your bottling method.