Hello and a quick question...

Hey all!

I am brand new to home brewing and I'm glad to have found this site, great information and I look forward to participating here. I've wanted to give it a try for a while but I was a little intimidated by it. My wife just got me a kit for my birthday though and I was up an running.

For my first batch I made a Canadian Ale last week. That started fermenting and I just couldn't wait (she got me 3 beer kits) and I went and got a second bucket and started an IPA. Then the Negra Modelo clone kit kept staring at me.. and my Canadian Ale had settled down.. so I transfered it to my secondary glass carboy and started a 3rd batch. I know, I'm an adict

So.. my question... here I am with a batch of Canadian Ale in my secondary fermenter and an IPA and a Mexican Beer in primaries... I can hold off on moving either of the 2 in primaries until I've bottled the Canadian, but I'm not going to be able to secondary ferment both of the others... would one style of beer clearly benefit from secondary fermentation more than the other or should I just base the decision on which I can wait longer to drink?

Isn't Negro Modelo a lager? If so, that will have to sit in the secondary, quite chilled, for weeks. Someone else with a little more knowledge, feel free to chime in and correct me or continue this wandering thought...

Good luck.

BREW ON

It is a lager, but it well may have been packaged with ale yeast, in which case, it is an ale that is meant to be reminiscent of a lager. So it won't need to be fermented cold or lagerized.

Yes it was made with an Ale yeast

The easiest solution would be to just get another carboy. If you don't want to do that I would say the next best thing, if you have to choose which one to secondary, would be to secondary the Mexican beer but leave the IPA for an extended primary, say, 3 weeks, then bottle it. The character of an IPA is the hops and the hop character tends to mellow with time.

John

I'm new to beer making so pardon my ignorance here but isn't a primary an open vessel? ( bucket) and a secondary a closed carbouy? If so wouldn't leaving your beer in an open vessel result in oxidation? I,ve had great sucsess making Coppers Kits I've made 3 now. and I've been racking from my primary to a air locked carbouy (secondary?) after about 4 days when the SG hits 1.020. Then I leave it for 2 weeks rack back to the primary, add sugar then bottle. So my question is it called secondary after I rack it or just a continued primary?

jkenvere said:

I'm new to beer making so pardon my ignorance here but isn't a primary an open vessel? ( bucket) and a secondary a closed carbouy?

Click to expand...

Most people have a sealed lid on their primary buckets....

Once you've bottled your Canadian Ale, move your IPA to secondary. Then clean out the bucket that you had your IPA in, sanitze it, and use it for secondary for your Modela clone. Presto! All three beers have been secondaried!

Actually, I had considered that, but then all my gear is tied up and I can't start a new batch.....

I'm a hopeless addict