When to Bottle? Rack to Seconday?

Ok i have read a lot of posts on here, none of which i can find right now, about keeping your beer in the primary for 2-4 weeks and then tranfering to the secondary for another week or so, etc, etc, so i was hoping for a little clarification.

In general, when is the best time to transfer from the primary to the secondary? Should i transfer while its still fermenting (bubbling? Should i wait until my gravity levels out? Should i just wait 3-4 weeks even though its has stopped bubbling days ago? Or should i just leave it in the primary then go right to bottling?

How long do i keep it in the secondary? If it stopped fermenting in the primary and i still transfered it to the secondary what exactly am i accomplishing in the secondary?

Any help is greatly appreciated. If it helps any i have an IPA that i have had in the primary for almost a week now and it is still bubbling away

If you are opting for a long primary you don't need to use a secondary..that's the point, it's to replace a secondary and to prevent excess risks of oxydation or infection, by limiting the amount of racking you do.

If you choose to leave your beer for 4 weeks, then you bottle it then....

This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.



That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.



This is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.

Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.


THIS is where the latest discussion and all your questions answered.
We have multiple threads about this all over the place, like this one,so we really don't need to go over it again, all the info you need is here;

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

You'll find that more and more recipes these days do not advocate moving to a secondary at all, but mention primary for a month, which is starting to reflect the shift in brewing culture that has occurred in the last 4 years, MOSTLY because of many of us on here, skipping secondary, opting for longer primaries, and writing about it. Recipes in BYO have begun stating that in their magazine. I remember the "scandal" it caused i the letters to the editor's section a month later, it was just like how it was here when we began discussing it, except a lot more civil than it was here. But after the Byo/Basic brewing experiment, they started reflecting it in their recipes.

If you aren't bulk aging or adding fruit//other flavors to the beer, just skip secondary and go straight to bottling.

In secondary, your beer is not fermenting any further unless you add more fermentable sugars to it.

Thats what i thought, just wanted to ask and make sure! Thanks!

Ok one other question, is there any reason you would want to use a bucket vs a carboy for your primary besides what you have available? Is there any difference between fermenting in either one??

clw2112 said:

Ok one other question, is there any reason you would want to use a bucket vs a carboy for your primary besides what you have available? Is there any difference between fermenting in either one??

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Buckets are much easier to work with/clean if you can live with not seeing the fermentation happen. The one real advantage to glass is that it's not permeable to oxygen but I'm not overly concerned with that for a normal primary duration. Plastic keeps light out better too.

clw2112 said:

Ok one other question, is there any reason you would want to use a bucket vs a carboy for your primary besides what you have available? Is there any difference between fermenting in either one??

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THey both make beer.....it doesn't really matter and most of the whole "oxygen permeability" issues that people keep repeating like it's gospel have been proved to be near negligable in their differences.....

Bottom line whatever works for you.

Good, I just need to get another airlock and I can brew a batch and throw it in my carboy.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

unionrdr said:

Just make sure you've def hit FG 1st,then give it time to clean up after itself & settle out good.

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What is a good amount of time to let out clean up and settle out?

Revvy said:

THey both make beer.....it doesn't really matter and most of the whole "oxygen permeability" issues that people keep repeating like it's gospel have been proved to be near negligable in their differences.....

Bottom line whatever works for you.

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I completely agree Revvy... I was just stating it as a factor because in fact so many do consider this when choosing vessels. I don't think we can get around the fact that plastic IS more permeable to oxygen regardless if it takes two years to play a role in good/bad beer or not so I was just throwing it out there. Myself, I have never thought of this as any kind of concern that is worth worrying about, moreso just trying to educate on something. It is probably one of those things though that is way overstated.