Newbie needs help, brew advice, Q and A talk.

Hello everyone at HBT, I'm a new brewer working on my first batch of beer, a coffee stout, (from grains, no extract kits here). I'd like first to ask anyone's opinions on secondary fermenting; I intend to, but have read several differing opinions.. And talk general brewcraft: chemistry, protips, equipment, etc.

Come chat?

The "should I secondary" topic is the most discussed topic on here, it has been readily and thoroughly covered. I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread. Every discussion, question, answer, citation, etc. is already in that thread....

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

Many of us leave our beer in primary for a month minimum then bottle.....We find out beers to be clearer and better tasting.

I suggest you read that thread, and experiment for yourself, and make up your own mind.

There's thousands of threads on here already, where folks have ventured their opinions, and argued incessantly, but it ultimately comes down to what works for you......Heck this topic has come up 4 times alone already today.

If you have any other specific questions, feel free to ask them. Your other topics are kinda broad for a linear forum..

Do you have more specific questions? How do you plan to introduce the coffee? There are a number of methods. I don't use a secondary myself, generally, because I think it is unnecessary. However, you could simply add coarsely ground coffee directly to your beer in a secondary, and let it steep for a couple days (no more, I should think) as you cold crash it.

Otherwise, for a dark beer like that in which clarity is not an issue, I personally would not bother with a secondary. Let it sit in primary for two weeks after fermentation is complete. Cold crash for a couple days, then bottle.

Thanks for such quick responses guys.

And i think I can add some specificity, but this has produced a few more questions...

1. What is "cold crashing"?
2. And how does a secondary even work if you wait until yeast activity has stopped to transfer the beer? If there is no yeast activity in secondary, what's the point?
3. There is a lot of what I see people calling "krausen" on top of my beer (and I've had some
Issues controlling the vigorous yeast activity), but there is also what appears to be alot of the particulates at the top of the Carboy... Wouldn't I want to move my beer off of this material?

I didn't know where to post but this thread title seems good enough. I just made my 1st ever batch of Mr. Beer. After following the instructions, I let it ferment for 2 weeks and then bottled and capped them. They've been carbonating in the fridge for 2 weeks now, but they still taste VERY flat. Is there something I did wrong? The only thing I can think of is the directions said to keep them at a little higher temperature than in the fridge. Anyone have any suggestions? Really appreciate it.

Oh, and the coffee was part of the mash... I used a caraffa malt...

forty9ers153 said:

I didn't know where to post but this thread title seems good enough. I just made my 1st ever batch of Mr. Beer. After following the instructions, I let it ferment for 2 weeks and then bottled and capped them. They've been carbonating in the fridge for 2 weeks now, but they still taste VERY flat. Is there something I did wrong? The only thing I can think of is the directions said to keep them at a little higher temperature than in the fridge. Anyone have any suggestions? Really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Well it's pretty bad form to hijack a thread with your own questions that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. You typically start your own thread. Hopefully wiht a clear title so folks actually will look at it.

But your answer is readily found throughout here as well....Look Here.

Thanks @Revvy, the "should I secondary" was super helpful... Definitely seems like its not necessary for me, just let the stout take its time to get good.. And since I have an extra Carboy sitting around not needed for a secondary, maybe I can just get to work on what I wanted to be my next brew project!

Gotta fill the pipeline! Get that second carboy going!

Well, now I'm a little concerned... Even after reading "should I secondary" I've read a lot more about separating the primary ferment off the trub, (which there is a lot of on the top walls of my carboy) since
My noob siphoning skills managed to pick up quite a bit... Is trub detrimental to the beer in fermentation? It's not in contact with the beer, and sits above the foam head (If that helps). Again, thanks for any help!

Just leave everything alone. Most of those discussions about seperating trub from beer are 40 years out of date. The stuff on no stress, leave your beer alone and let the natural course of things complete without hovering over it and interefering is the way to go. Leaving it IN CONTACT with the yeast and trub

Pitch yeast.
Walk Away
Come back in month
bottle.
Leave beer above 70 for a minimum of three weeks before checking on carbonation.

That's it. It's not rocket science to make great beer, it's patience

And not being a little concerned about anything and everything you read....

I'll have to agree and disagree with Revvy. It's not hard to make good beer, it just takes patience. However, with that said, I think it's not just okay for you to take interest and concern in all the things you read, it's actually imperative. Read, read, read, and learn everything you can about the hobby. The beauty of the hobby is that with time you will learn what works best for you, but the beauty of science is that the community can expedite your improvement.

Yea.. I am usually a patient guy... The waiting of this hobby is killed however thanks for the simplified approach method, and I'll post back when I have a final product. Thanks again.

Yes, the waiting is the hard part. But I'm with Revy on this one. The way I see it is, there is no real proof that transferring your beer to a secondary vessel does anything to greatly improve your beer vs. just leaving it go in the primary vessel. And by leaving it go in the primary, you are greatly reducing the risk of introducing infection to your beer. To me, that is enough to just leave it alone.

The only time I transfer my beer to a secondary vessel is to open up one of my fermenting buckets. I currently have 3 fermenting buckets and a glass carboy. I try to make one batch that doesn't require dry hopping so I usually will transfer the non-dry hop brew to the carboy so that I can have 4 batches going at once. All of my dry-hopped beers stay in the primary and I just add the hops for the last 7 days prior to bottling. Much easier to add hops to a bucket vs. a carboy...

Man, nice setup.. And what sounds to be a really efficient process of keeping things moving. Thanks for the tip man! And this also helped answer my question about bucket fermenting... My friends who got me into brewing use plastic primary and glass secondary carboys.. I'm going tomorrow to invest in a couple of buckets, and start another batch.

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with the set up so far...

I would say that a stout is one of the easiest beers to skip the secondary on. There is no need for clarity, and most of them are not dry hopped. I don't use a secondary. I dry hop in the primary and don't really worry about remaining yeast in my bottles. It definitely makes a clearer beer with less yeast colony remaining, but I'm just lazy and don't won't to lose any beer. It always seems like the ideal time to transfer to secondary is when I'm at work.

I wouldn't use a secondary on beers like a stout or ale. Now a lager, I think it's essential for clarity. It also gives you an opportunity to harvest the expensive lager yeast before you send it dormant for a month.

Revvy said:

Just leave everything alone. Most of those discussions about seperating trub from beer are 40 years out of date. The stuff on no stress, leave your beer alone and let the natural course of things complete without hovering over it and interefering is the way to go. Leaving it IN CONTACT with the yeast and trub

Pitch yeast.
Walk Away
Come back in month
bottle.
Leave beer above 70 for a minimum of three weeks before checking on carbonation.

That's it. It's not rocket science to make great beer, it's patience

And not being a little concerned about anything and everything you read....

Click to expand...

I love reading your replies. They make my day

I agree. No secondary needed unless something really crazy needs to happen. Like you NEED to rack that blonde on 10 lbs of peaches or strawberries.

I always though that when the beer company gives you 2 carboys- one 6 gallon and one 5 gallon- that the 5 gallon is used for Apfelwein. If you do not believe me, I suggest you make some, and get happy.

Not sure if I missed how you intended to add the coffee so sorry if I did. I made a coffee brown a few batches ago and cold brewed the coffee and added to taste when I bottled. This helped me get the coffee flavor where I wanted it so it wasn't too light or too strong. Just thought this may be a helpful bit of info.

I used a coffee malt, caraffa malt is what the guys at my home brew supply store called it.

Well you may consider cold brewing some coffee in case you feel it needs it. I've never used coffee malt so I don't know how much the flavor will come through in the end. Good luck!!!

Thanks for the idea man, I'll use this batch as a control, and try it in the next? I think that's the most reasonable approach.

Well... It's done!!! It came out nicely just enough sweet to balance the bitter, slight coffee taste that blends awesomely with the hops, and the sweetness to lend a unique flavor I've never experienced in a beer, but I guess that is what makes it my own.. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, however.. I would ask if anyone has any tips on head retention. Thanks.

God that looks good. Doesn't look like you have an issues with head retention at all.

There's some really great discussions on here about head retention. Just poke around and you'll find them. A lot of them have great titles that are double entendres.

Thank you, and I'll do some looking around then.