First Brew Day Tomorrow

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for any advice you give me. I'm getting ready for my first brew day tomorrow (English Brown Ale, extract, partial boil) and had a couple of quick questions.

1) Since I have time, I was thinking about cold steeping my grains for 24 hours. Is there any disadvantage to doing this?

2) Am I crazy for wanting to do a secondary fermentation? My supplier said it's always a good idea (I'm thinking for a week or two while my second batch goes through primary) but I'm not sure if he just wanted to sell me another carboy

Not sure about the long steep but I always do a secondary because I want a real clear beer and I like my beer to mellow out a bit before I bottle it. The secondary helps my hoppier beers mellow out a bit.

1. I wouldn't. I would be worried about over-extracting. Steeping grains is a lot like brewing tea. If you leave the grains in the water too long, you could start extracting tannins and other nasties.

2. Nope. Do whatever you think will work best. I secondary sometimes (either to free up a primary or to dry hop) and sometimes don't. The important thing is to keep it in the primary and on the cake for three or four weeks. A long time in the primary will atone for many sins. A rest in the secondary will help clear things up. If you chose to secondary, figure at least a week to let things settle.

Well, first brew went great and plenty of action in primary. Quick question about when I rack to secondary. I'm planning on using a 6.5 gal glass carboy, but read a post that mentioned that there would be a risk with using one that big for secondary. Should I get a 5 gal or does it not matter?

you want as little head space as possible due to oxidation so for a 5g batch use a 5g secondary

That's what I thought. Thanks!

Just don't get anxiuos and rack it too soon, let the yeast do thier job.

Eastside

Will do, I'm giving it at least 17 days in primary

badchemeng said:

Well, first brew went great and plenty of action in primary. Quick question about when I rack to secondary. I'm planning on using a 6.5 gal glass carboy, but read a post that mentioned that there would be a risk with using one that big for secondary. Should I get a 5 gal or does it not matter?

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It really doesn't matter all that much if you're only using the carboy a couple of weeks. It would take months for a little headspace to affect the beer, and just racking the beer will dislodge some co2 out of suspension, and cause a nice co2 "blanket" over the top of the beer anyway. If all you have is the bigger carboy, it's absolutely fine to use.