should i use my secondary (first brew)

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silv3rbull3t

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I've been reading john palmers "how to brew" book, and he recomends for beginners to by pass the secondary. What do all you vets out there think? On this sunday my batch will have been in the fermenter for 2 weeks and i am trying to decide if i should put it into the secondary, or just go straight to priming. Also, does anyone have a online tutorial on how to use a hydrometer? Thanks in advance guys

Also, how do you guys clean your pre used beer bottles that you've saved? Any special methods/solutions/tricks to make sure their supper clean so i don't screw up my beer?
 
Hi, first, welcome to brewing. It's an great hobby and you've already found the right site. You will pick up a ton of good advice here.

As for your questions, it's ok to skip the secondary fermentation but in my opinion you should go ahead and "try" it as you'll want to use it in future brews. Might as well learn how it works now.

The major benefits are: 1) you will achieve greater clarity by racking your beer off of the gunk (trub) that settles to the bottom of the primary fermenter and repeating this process in secondary. 2) you reduce the risk of off flavors resulting from the beer sitting on this trub and after a fairly long period autolyzed yeast.

That being said, some think that for cloudy beers (e.g. a hefeweizen) you should skip secondary and go straight to bottling after 3 weeks.

I'm cleaning pre used bottles right now and my process is to wash them out immediately after drinking then soak in a bleach solution (1 c bleach to 5 gals. water) for about 30 mins followed by a thorough rinsing and then I cook them in the dishwasher (dry cycle only). This is perhaps overkill but I and many homebrewers are pretty anal about cleanliness. Will save you heartbreak and money in the long run.

Good luck!
 
deharris said:
Hi, first, welcome to brewing. It's an great hobby and you've already found the right site. You will pick up a ton of good advice here.

As for your questions, it's ok to skip the secondary fermentation but in my opinion you should go ahead and "try" it as you'll want to use it in future brews. Might as well learn how it works now.

The major benefits are: 1) you will achieve greater clarity by racking your beer off of the gunk (trub) that settles to the bottom of the primary fermenter and repeating this process in secondary. 2) you reduce the risk of off flavors resulting from the beer sitting on this trub and after a fairly long period autolyzed yeast.

That being said, some think that for cloudy beers (e.g. a hefeweizen) you should skip secondary and go straight to bottling after 3 weeks.

I'm cleaning pre used bottles right now and my process is to wash them out immediately after drinking then soak in a bleach solution (1 c bleach to 5 gals. water) for about 30 mins followed by a thorough rinsing and then I cook them in the dishwasher (dry cycle only). This is perhaps overkill but I and many homebrewers are pretty anal about cleanliness. Will save you heartbreak and money in the long run.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, as far as sanatizing the siphion and the secondary is soaking them in bleach solution then rinsing them a adaquate plan for those as well? How important is using the hydrometer?
 
I would say a big "no" to bleach as a sanitizer on your brewing equipment. It can leave off flavors if it's not rinsed really, really well. A no rinse sanitizer such as one-step, Idophor, or Star-san is really important, I think! I use no rinse sanitizer on ALL my brewing gear and love it.

Also, I think a hydrometer is crucial. Usually it just confirms what you already suspect, but it'll keep you away from any possiblity of bottle bombs or not recognizing stuck fermentations. I think it's well worth the $6 or so.

Welcome to the greatest hobby in the world! :mug:
 
Palmers book should have instructions on hydrometer use. If not, get Papazians Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It tells about hydrometers and also has a section with various recipes that include original gravity. Its most important when checking O.G. to do so BEFORE adding yeast
 
Basically:
1. If your beer really ****ing big?
2. Do you care a great deal how clear it looks?

If the answer to both of those is no you probably don't need a secondary. In any case a lot of people on these boards are tending to leave their beers in primary longer since as long as the yeast is alive it seems to help the beer mature faster. For example I left my last beer (a fairly big stout 7% ABV) was in primary for a month and then bottles for two weeks and its already fairly tasty with I think is pretty fast for a beer of that style.
 
I just bottled my pale ale, and I did not use secondary fermentation. Two weeks in the primary was all that was required to reach my final gravity.

I tend to agree with Palmer on this issue. If it's a lager or a high original gravity ale (over 1.070, for instance), then secondary is recommended. If it is neither of these, primary is enough. Two weeks is not enough time to affect the flavor of the beer or for autolysis to occur.

I've read that leaving it in the primary longer can have positive effects as well, such as the yeast doing a better job of cleaning up diacetyl.
 

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