Questions about secondary fermentation

I currently have an Oktoberfest Ale in my primary and had a couple questions about secondary fermenting.

What exactly is the purpose of having a secondary?

Which is better, a long primary fermentation period or a long secondary fermentation period?

I still have a while before I transfer it over, but i just wanted to know what and why i was doing it. I am new to home brewing, and was suggested to do the secondary fermentation.Thanks.RK

You'll find differing opinions on secondary, I sometimes use secondary only for further clearing of my beer but usually only after 3 weeks in primary. Extended primary will make a much cleaner tasting beer as it allows the yeast to clean up after themselves. Some, including me, do not use secondary at all for some beers. I usually only use secondary on heavy gravity beers or for dry hop additions, etc.

You are much better off with a long primary. Many homebrewers, myself included, leave beer in the fermenter until it's clear, 3-6 weeks. It gives the yeast time to clean up esters.

Secondary fermentation is a hold-over from wine making. In brewing, it's better thought of as a clearing tank.

Here's my game plan: I'm going to use a secondary when I use a bucket as my primary. This way, after about a week I can rack to a secondary glass carboy and keep tabs on the clearing process.

If I use my glass carboy as my primary, I'll probably just leave it in there for 3 weeks until bottling.

You'll find a lot of people who always use a secondary and following a 1-2-3 rule; that is, 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary and then 3 weeks in the bottle.

Another reason people use secondaries is so that they can free up their primaries for more batches. Now that I can understand.

Thanks for the replies. One more question, when i transfer to the secondary, do i include the solid buildup at the bottom of the fermenter? is that yeast? i want to open up my primary and my brew is almost done fermenting. i figgured i could put it into my glass carboy to finish fermenting for a few more weeks and also clear up.

No you want to leave as much behind as possible.

what is it?

RascalKing said:

Thanks for the replies. One more question, when i transfer to the secondary, do i include the solid buildup at the bottom of the fermenter? is that yeast? i want to open up my primary and my brew is almost done fermenting. i figgured i could put it into my glass carboy to finish fermenting for a few more weeks and also clear up.

Click to expand...

like david said your much better off waiting and you will be rewarded with better beer. Most advanced brewers only use a seconary for either fruit additions or dry hopping (adding hops directly to the beer). Wait a full month or a minimum of 3 weeks and then drain off and bottle leaving behind as much of the gunk as possble. The stuff at the bottom is generally yeast and coagulated proteins from the grains and decreases the stability of the beer over time which can cause off flavors. Good luck

Thanks for clerifying that. i checked the sg yesterday morning and then tonight and there was no change, so the fermentation process is pretty much done. why continue in the primary from here? what are the bonuses gain by doing this vice racking in the carboy to clear up? thank you guys again

What is left behind is yeast and other junk you transfered to the fermenter. The yeasties like to clean themselves up. So you want to leave the beer in the primary to clean up so to speak. I leave mine in the primary for 2 weeks after fermentation is completed.

Then I transfer to the "secondary" to clear and age before bottling / kegging.

** These are all opinions and everyone has their own opinion on what to do. Eventually the yeasties will eat themselves and not taste very good, but it takes a long time (I think months), so you can't leave the beer in the primary forever.

thank you. i may have gotten to impatient, but i went ahead and transferred to my carboy. i figure if it is horribe, i will just chalk it up to my first brew and try again to learn. i got some of the gunk in the brew in transfer, but figure it will just settle out and i can get it out when i switch it over to bottles. thanks to everyone who took the time to teach me.RK

RascalKing said:

i got some of the gunk in the brew in transfer, but figure it will just settle out and i can get it out when i switch it over to bottles.

Click to expand...

Your beer will be fine and you will only get better. Your processes will get better as well. You'll be able to get the other sediment out when you transfer to your bottling bucket, and then you'll leave even more behind in the bucket.

And remember...everyone was a n00b at one point.

Cool. Thanks

i only want to add this, leaving dead yeast cells to break down in your beer can do one of two things, and ive seen both.

either way, once fermentation had ended, there is still plenty of live yeast in the beer to do ester cleanup, but the big difference between using a secondary and aging in primary is that by removing the beer from dead yeast cells, you can make a cleaner less yeasty tasting beer.

now in some beers this is a very good thing to do. but in others that want the yeast to add flavor to the beer its bad.

you dont want a pilsner lager to taste like yeast, but then again a hefeweien without yeast flavors is not worth it.

rack to secondary based on how much yeast flavor you want in your beer.

Was it silly to get a primary bucket with a spigot on it? It seems that most people say to siphon the beer off of the yeastcake before bottling. Is this the best plan? I do also have a 5 gallon glass carboy, so if i have to strain it off, it wouldn't be a problem. Then i could clean the bucket with the spigot and use it to bottle if need be.

But for the record, is it a good idea to not use the spigot to transfer beer on a primary fermenter since its close to the yeast cake?

Another unrelated question:
Does consuming living beer yeast affect digestion any way? Make you gassy? Give you the runs? Offer the potential for the colony to take possession of your body in attempt to help propagate the species and potentially take over human kind?
thanks.

Here's what I know, and I'm sure other can give you some more info, but I believe the buckets with a spigot are primarily used for bottling. That's not to say they can't be used for racking into a secondary, but I've heard that people have had problems with these getting clogged up with yeast cake... even on the BetterBottles with the outrageously expensive racking spigot.

I would just use a bucket without a spigot as a primary, and then rack to a bottling bucket (with spigot) for bottling.

The yeast will make you gassy or give you the runs, depending on how much you have and your digestion system. It's not bad for you though, it's no different than those yogurts that are specifically marketed to make you poop. It's also a diuretic.

Drink up!

Would bottle conditioning up two 2 weeks be enough to make the beer yeast not affect the stomach (not sure if they die or just go to sleep)? Is it the fact that they are living that makes them affect digestion, or is it just a reaction to the particular yeast that could do that?

I think that you have to have a lot for it to significantly affect digestion. If you decant your homebrew so the yeast at the bottom is left behind, that will be more than adequate.

Sounds good. Thanks Oodles.