2 secondary Fermenting questions

1. I've seen people talk about siphoning to their bottling bucket, clean the primary, then siphon back to the primary (which is now the secondary). My question is.. is this done immediately? Do you literally go from primary, bottling bucket, back to the clean primary asap???

2. if you choose not to do a secondary and the recipe says, primary for 4-6 days, then 2-3 weeks in the 2nd. Does that mean you just leave it in the primary for those 2-3 extra weeks, so a total of 4 weeks in the primary?

So for the stupid questions!

Thanks!

Never heard of the first one being done. That just seems silly to me.

When I make a lager, that's how I do it. Everything stays in the "primary" fermenter. The only times an actual secondary is used is when using fruit or a different yeast, like Brettanomyces, for actual secondary fermentation.

What most people refer as a secondary fermenter is actually a bright tank or conditioning tank. If fermentation is done and you rack to another vessel, it isn't fermenting any more so it's not a secondary fermenter. It's a bright tank.

just let it ferment and settle in primary for 3-4 weeks,then if the reading say 'done' then bottle. less work. better if you crash cool the primary in fridge for 3-7 days to clear. then bottle.

Yes, it is an ASAP process. The idea is that you are cleaning your primary so that you can use it as a secondary, the quicker it gets back into your fermentation vessel the better.

Most people seem to say 2-4 weeks in primary before you bottle. It depends on the beer, how big it is, how many adjuncts are in it, what temperature you are fermenting at, etc.

I would recommend investing in a hydrometer (they are pretty cheap) and taking a reading before you bottle to make sure you are finished fermenting. That is the only failsafe way to know that you can bottle.

Your recipe should have a Final Gravity (FG) number somewhere, and if not, most online recipie builders and brewing programs will give you what your FG is supposed to be.

I have a hydrometer, but he recipe said get the FG before I put it in the secondary??? So, I just need to get the FG before I bottle???

Dawgbrew said:

I have a hydrometer, but he recipe said get the FG before I put it in the secondary??? So, I just need to get the FG before I bottle???

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Give it 2-3 weeks before you bottle, at the very least you will end up with less yeast sediment in your bottles. (This is, of course assuming you are doing relatively simple ales.)

I guess you could take a reading before you put it into your secondary, but the most important readings are the ones before you put the beer into primary and before you bottle.

The idea with the secondary is to seperate the wort from the yeast base. As the yeast finishes it's life cycle it just like other organisms begins to decompose. So going into the secondary is twofold: Reduce yeast sediment before bottling, reduce the possibility of off flavors because of old dead yeast. The dead yeast thing is a minimal concern because it would have to sit on it for quite a while but it's still a reason. Leaving everything in the bucket and not making a secondary fermentation has never hurt anything as far as I know.

secondary is infact to seperate yeast from beer. but if you rack over to soon you will still have alot of yeast in the beer. just let it ferment. let it clear. then rack. the less YOU mess with it the better of it will be. but you got beer one way or the other. good luck.

^^^^^^