So in my first 12 months of brewing, I've completed a number of very successful ales, never once racking to a secondary, as I saw early on the community's general disdain for the practice, with the current knowledge being that the minor risk of autolysis and off flavours was questionable, and not worth the chance of oxidation, infection, etc from moving between vessels.
However, the consensus does seem to be that lagers should still be moved to secondary after a D-Rest, to get them off the trub during the lagering period.
So here's my dilemma: I have 4.9 gallons of a marzen going into a D-Rest today, and I will need to do something with it this weekend; as I see it, my options are:
1) Leave it in the primary, lager "as is" (no problems temperature wise, will be lagering at around 1c)
2) Rack to a 5 gallon carboy before lagering; the issue being that I will have some open headspace (the 4.9g will likely be more like 4.5-4.6g with trub losses) and I have no CO2 to purge headspace with (no kegging kit until March at the earliest)
So, faithful friends, what are your opinions? Which option would you pursue in my place?
However, the consensus does seem to be that lagers should still be moved to secondary after a D-Rest, to get them off the trub during the lagering period.
So here's my dilemma: I have 4.9 gallons of a marzen going into a D-Rest today, and I will need to do something with it this weekend; as I see it, my options are:
1) Leave it in the primary, lager "as is" (no problems temperature wise, will be lagering at around 1c)
2) Rack to a 5 gallon carboy before lagering; the issue being that I will have some open headspace (the 4.9g will likely be more like 4.5-4.6g with trub losses) and I have no CO2 to purge headspace with (no kegging kit until March at the earliest)
So, faithful friends, what are your opinions? Which option would you pursue in my place?