Newbie with Questions.

So I am very excited to have found y’all. I am brand new to home brewing and I have all kinds of questions. My first batch, Arsenal Beer Works Double Barrel Brown Ale (I will post the label when it’s completed), is in its first fermentation and is starting to slow a touch after ~3 days, which I expected. I can not wait to see what it turns into.

Anyway, on to the questions.

- Why the transfer to a second carboy for a second fermentation? If you are not adding anything to the mix and just moving it, couldn’t you have completed it in your primary fermenter?

- My understanding is that the beer should “Clear” in the second fermenter. What does that mean, what is “clearing” out of the beer?

- In the recipe kit for this Nut Brown Ale I am working on, it says 5-7 days in the primary, 5-7 days in the secondary, and at least 2 weeks in the bottles. I’ve read here about the 1-2-3 rule. If I went with that, would the extra week in the secondary fermenter have any negative effect on the beers flavor, or should I just stick with the directions for my first time out?

I guess that's it for now, I am sure that I will come up with more questions. Thanks for the help and I will grab a cold one while I continue to wait.

The focculated yeast starts starving to death in the trub, so you either remove the trub or move the ale to a secondary. Clearing is just how it sounds, more yeast and some of the proteins fall out. And extra week won't hurt.

1911Man said:

- Why the transfer to a second carboy for a second fermentation? If you are not adding anything to the mix and just moving it, couldn’t you have completed it in your primary fermenter?

- My understanding is that the beer should “Clear” in the second fermenter. What does that mean, what is “clearing” out of the beer?

- In the recipe kit for this Nut Brown Ale I am working on, it says 5-7 days in the primary, 5-7 days in the secondary, and at least 2 weeks in the bottles. I’ve read here about the 1-2-3 rule. If I went with that, would the extra week in the secondary fermenter have any negative effect on the beers flavor, or should I just stick with the directions for my first time out?

I guess that's it for now, I am sure that I will come up with more questions. Thanks for the help and I will grab a cold one while I continue to wait.

Click to expand...

welcome aboard!
1. some prefer (like myself) to rack to the secondary to allow beer to clear (allow additional suspended yeast or trub to fall out) to settle out. this also is a time for the beer to mature and allow the flavors to mellow and/or meld together for a smoother brew. some feel leaving the beer in the primary can give the beer off-flavors from setting on the trub (spent hops,yeast,ect) too long.
2. racking to secondary will not hurt, only help the brew. secondary is a homebrewers term. there is no fermentation going on unless it was racked from primary before the yeast finished doin' the business.


hope that helps, and the other guy's will have some good answers also.

good luck with the Brown Ale!

Okay, here goes.

This is my education from the guys on here.

Week 1
Yeasty beasties eat the sugar in the wort and piss alcohol and fart CO2 (and a few other things). Most of them die and fall to the bottom with other gunk. At this stage the beer is still pretty raw.

You then move the beer off the "gunk" into Secondary,

Week 2 thru' 3
The beer with out the Gunk releases some of the harsher alcohols and stuff and other flavours blend and mellow out.
Then the beer is transfered "racked" again off any drop out gunk ready for priming then kegging or bottling.

Week 4 thru' 6
The bits of yeast left in the beer eat the priming sugar and fart C02 "Carbonation"
Flavour further chills and blends.

That's the 1,2,3 thing

After that the beer gets better, I've tasted my Brews at 6 weeks and they do not taste the same at 8 weeks.

I'm happy with 8 week brews.......

PS I've only been brewing 8 weeks.

what everyone else said is right. a few things i would add- there is nothing wrong with just doing a week in the primary, priming and bottling and letting them sit for 2 weeks and then start drinking them. i'd even recomend that for your first one because as a new homebrewer its really freakin hard to wait 6 weeks to drink your first homebrew. also, this will let you see more directly the benefits of using the secondary, or especially the 1-2-3 method. first- although i personally dont mind a beer with lots of stuff (protein, hops, yeast, whatever) in it, it is definitely nice to have a clearer beer- some people even use finings to get really clear beer. second- the beer really is alive and will taste different each day, they most definitely get better the longer you wait, although those first few 5 gallons are hard to hold on to, once you realize how much better they get after conditioning a little longer, you'll make sure to let them sit a while. think of the secondary as a way of conditioning them in a place where you can't drink them at all. third- you can let your beer sit in the secondary for quite a while. people that are lazy about bottling and have lots of carboys will let them sit for up to a month or so. some styles of beer, like barleywine will take months in the secondary to completely ferment, and then you have to let them sit for like a year before theyre best to drink. my point is that you can do what you want, it'll probably be good no matter what method you use. but, your brew will be better if youre patient. Also, the longer you brew, and the more beer you get stockpiled, the more patient you will become, and you won't have to worry about it. 1-2-3 will come naturally.

drengel is right...

I'm drinking one of my batch #5 brew that went straight from primary to bottle and it is a very nice beer. It's 3 weeks and a bit from brew day.

i'd even recomend that for your first one because as a new homebrewer its really freakin hard to wait 6 weeks to drink your first homebrew.

Click to expand...

Brew 10 Gallons then you can either bottle one carboy while the other is moved to a secondary. Then brew some more beer. That way you have some homebrew to drink while the other beers are fermenting/maturing and you can compare the secondaried half of your first batch to the stuff bottled early.

Once you have a few brews on the go and available for drinking, it's much easier to wait for your beer to age. It's the first batch or two that are the hardest!

So, is that the Colt 1911? Good gun.

I am yet to get a Colt, but I have a Kimber and a Para Ordnance 1911. Great guns indeed! I would love to get my hands on an original Colt 1911A1, but between my new brewing hobby and my other hobbies it will be a while!

1911Man said:

I am yet to get a Colt, but I have a Kimber and a Para Ordnance 1911. Great guns indeed! I would love to get my hands on an original Colt 1911A1, but between my new brewing hobby and my other hobbies it will be a while!

Click to expand...

Well, you'll need something to protect all that homebrew...

Up here in Canada..well..what the hell's a gun? Of course I'm not really sure what that long heavy object wrapped in a packing blanket is in the closet...haha

Canada and its 1.5 BILLION $ (and climbing) gun registry fiasco... Would have been cheaper just to have bought all our guns!

1911Man said:

- Why the transfer to a second carboy for a second fermentation? If you are not adding anything to the mix and just moving it, couldn’t you have completed it in your primary fermenter?

- My understanding is that the beer should “Clear” in the second fermenter. What does that mean, what is “clearing” out of the beer?

- In the recipe kit for this Nut Brown Ale I am working on, it says 5-7 days in the primary, 5-7 days in the secondary, and at least 2 weeks in the bottles. I’ve read here about the 1-2-3 rule. If I went with that, would the extra week in the secondary fermenter have any negative effect on the beers flavor, or should I just stick with the directions for my first time out?

Click to expand...

Here's an interesting read on secondary fermentation. As you can see, it's about much more than just clearing your beer.

Denny's Brew said:

Well, you'll need something to protect all that homebrew...

Click to expand...

That's easy...just put up a Jehovah Witness' sign...no one will come within a mile of your house!

And if the JW's show up tell them you're just renting and the owners didn't want you to take the sign down...now, if you excuse me, I'm late for synagogue.

PS. This doesn't work if you are holding a HB while answering the door.

really, HB 99, lay off the Octoberfest. your freak'n me out. and you play with ordinance???????

DeRoux's Broux said:

really, HB 99, lay off the Octoberfest. your freak'n me out. and you play with ordinance???????

Click to expand...

No, I don't play with the law. I play with ordnance. (And it's Blue Moon tonight) I'm still on the road. I don't get home until Friday.

refer back too "general chit chat". too many Maredsous.....can't spill roght......

DeRoux's Broux said:

refer back too "general chit chat". too many Maredsous.....can't spill roght......

Click to expand...

Not trying to correct your spelling. I just want you to understand the difference, and maybe you do, but others would have chimed in and said about the same. Sorry.

Thanks of all of the guidance. Big shock, I have a new question. Today I moved my primary carboy from the basement to the kitchen. I was planning to rack sometime tomorrow and I figured that I could use the 24 hours to let the beer settle. After the move, it’s fermentation started up again, airlock bubbling once every 14 seconds. I’m not sure how often it was bubbling in the basement, but it was much slower.

I assume that this is a result of both some mixing as I moved it and the increase in temperature, ~69 in the basement and ~74 in the kitchen. Is there any reason that I should not rack tomorrow? It will have been a full 7 days since fermentation started and I will be racking into another carboy/airlock setup.

Thanks!

I have a weird set of rules I follow that don't allow me to rack until the day AFTER bubbling has slowed to 1 every 90 seconds.

I'm betting that by tomorrow, the bubbling will have slowed back down considerably for you and you are probably OK to rack it. However, there is no harm in waiting a little while longer (unless something is pressing you to move the beer sooner.)

I think you will be OK regardless of what decision you make (rack it now or wait a bit longer.)

-walker

The only constraint is my patience.

It won't hurt to rack it now. You may end up with a little more sediment. If you are planning on aging in secondary for over 3 weeks then you should wait till there is practically no ferm. happening, but other wise you'll be fine.

I often just wait till the krausen has fallen, then rack.

hb 99 - i do know the difference, just looped that night ! ;~)

1911, check the specific gravity to make 100% sure. or let it set another day and you'll be fine. no worries.

It is sitting at ~1.018 and should be at 1.012 when finished. I tasted it and found the mix to still be a little sweet, but I figure that the SG will continue to drop while in the second carboy. So I will be racking my first homebrew tomorrow. Thanks for all of the input.

DeRoux's Broux said:

hb 99 - i do know the difference, just looped that night ! ;~)

1911, check the specific gravity to make 100% sure. or let it set another day and you'll be fine. no worries.

Click to expand...

I was certain you did.

thank's for giving me that much! :~)