secondary fermentation

is there an advantage to doing the secondary at a colder temp than the primary? I am brewing a cream ale, and the yeast calls for 68-73 degrees. should I do the secondary at the same temps or try to do it at a cooler temp? advantages or disadvantages? thanks for the help.

Since this is an ale, you need to keep fermentation temp the same. If you cool it too much and the yeast drops out, it will have a harder time carbonating. If it was a lager, it would be a different story.

I cold-condition all my ales, to help them clear out. Most of my ales are light amber at the darkest so it helps a lot.

My ales spend about 3 weeks in secondary.... 1 week at fermentation temps, and then I drop it into the 50's for two weeks. When I rack into my bottling bucket, my fermentor has a chance to warm back up to room temp, and my racking cane will stir up enough yeast off the bottom so when it goes into the bottling bucket, it will still carbonate.

I also feel that the cold-conditioning makes my beers taste more crisp and finish very clean and I highly recommend doing it.

I have been conditioning my lite ale in the low 60 deg F. range and after 3 1/2 weeks I have little or no fermentation. I rolled the bottles (re-suspended the yeast) and am storing them in a 70 deg F. room. I think this will help. Low temperatures didn't work for me.

I almost always drop the temps once in secondary. After 2 or 3 weeks, there's still plenty of yeast in suspension. I am currently cold-conditioning (in the lagerator, at about 36-38f) a smoked porter. From what I understand, the colder the temps (as long as it's above 35), the better the conditioning, but the longer it will take. It does seem to benefit, though, with an added crispness, and a sort of polished palate profile. Very nice.

However, the longer you condition in carboys, the more yeast falls. My porter's been in the lagerator since the middle of november...so I'm sure that if I were to simply prime and bottle it as is, it wouldn't carbonate. Since I like stronger beer, I tend to age mine longer than the minimum 2 weeks...which means that I run into this problem often. What I do, in that case, is add some generic rehydrated dry yeast at bottling, and all is taken care of. Or, failing that, you could rouse the solids at the bottom of the carboy, but that will definitely affect clarity.

After bottling, I sit the bottles in a warm room (I use a space heater) for a couple weeks. I test bottles every 5 days or so. Once it's sufficiently carbonated, I take it out and put it in my cellar for conditioning @ about 60f, and I drink it when I'm ready.

jackmaxcy said:

I have been conditioning my lite ale in the low 60 deg F. range and after 3 1/2 weeks I have little or no fermentation. I rolled the bottles (re-suspended the yeast) and am storing them in a 70 deg F. room. I think this will help. Low temperatures didn't work for me.

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After 3 1/2 weeks you should have no fermentation. In fact if you had any fermentation at all in secondary, then you racked too soon IMO.

When you bottle you need to keep your bottles at fermenting temps or higher to carbonate your beer for 2 to 3 weeks before placing them back into the cold.