I just wanted to add, since I'd told you I have a plastic secondary, it is very seldom that I use one. I've only used it twice, once to bulk age a very hot and dry Belgian, and once to let a cream ale clear from grain husks that were crushed so fine the steeping bag wouldn't hold them without a lot of spillage when I was doing extract beers. I've left beer on the yeast cake for 5-6 weeks with no ill effects. As a matter of fact my last beer, another type of cream ale, staid on the cake for six weeks and when I tasted it at bottling time uncarbonated I can say with near certainty it will be my best beer yet. It tasted just like the beer I was trying to clone. Really a secondary is only needed if you're bulk aging, clearing, adding fruit, lacto, or dry hopping, unless of course your talking about wine making. In all the beer cases though your fermentation is over and you wait several days for the yeast to clean up before racking. There is a method which has fallen out of favor where you rack 3/4 of the way to your final gravity, but it doesn't make sense to me and it seems most others.
