Time in the primary and the following steps..

Hello everyone! I am pretty new to home brewing and currently I am on my first brew of Amber Ale. I started very basic so I could at least just get the process down before trying anything fancy. My question is about how long it should be in the primary? Also I have read about people putting it in a secondary fermenting bucket/carboy and letting that ferment before bottling?

What I do is keep the beer in the primary for about a month. I don't use a 2ndary for many reasons (Oxidation in 2ndary, better yeast cake for racking, better conditioning of the beer, etc).

However, either method would work fine.

If you do plan on using a 2ndary, go ahead and rack to the new fermentation vessel after about 10-14 days.

I leave mine in the primary (I use a bucket) for 4 to 7 days. Then it goes into a carboy for awhile. It generally sits in the secondary for at least a couple weeks. I do this for a couple reasons: I have more carboys than primary buckets, so I can have more beer in the "pipeline"; and, I think it gives the solids more time to settle out in the secondary. However, the best way to tell if your beer is ready to bottle is to check the specific gravity. Take at least two readings at least two days apart. If the readings are the same and the gravity is what you expect for final gravity, it is a good indicator that the beer can be bottled.

Haputanlas said:

What I do is keep the beer in the primary for about a month. I don't use a 2ndary for many reasons (Oxidation in 2ndary, better yeast cake for racking, better conditioning of the beer, etc).

However, either method would work fine.

If you do plan on using a 2ndary, go ahead and rack to the new fermentation vessel after about 10-14 days.

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+1. I'm a fan of the four week primary then bottle for any beer you don't need to add something into a secondary.

All of my beer spends at least 30 days in the primary - sometimes a week or two more when I run out of time. After that I bottle and leave in the bottle for at least 30 days before trying. I will only use a secondary for dry hopping.

This is a topic I have struggled with too. I want beer to be more on the clear side so I have been racking to a glass carboy after fermenting in a bucket initially. I have never fully understood how soon that should be done though. In all, I seem to be doing a good job and have only had one bad batch that did not carbonate in the bottle. My fear is that i waited too long to rack and then to bottle. When should I be moving from the primary to the secondary? The sense I get is that it should be after the bulk of activity stops (bubbling) but when there is still some fermentation left. I think waiting a week or so like I have is too long. Anyone have some good feedback on this?

Finally, would I get good clear beer without racking?

FastEddie212 said:

This is a topic I have struggled with too. I want beer to be more on the clear side so I have been racking to a glass carboy after fermenting in a bucket initially. I have never fully understood how soon that should be done though. In all, I seem to be doing a good job and have only had one bad batch that did not carbonate in the bottle. My fear is that i waited too long to rack and then to bottle. When should I be moving from the primary to the secondary? The sense I get is that it should be after the bulk of activity stops (bubbling) but when there is still some fermentation left. I think waiting a week or so like I have is too long. Anyone have some good feedback on this?

Finally, would I get good clear beer without racking?

Click to expand...

How soon you rack from primary to secondary is up to you. I wait at least 4 days and usually at most 7 days to be sure most of the heavy fermentation is done. By that time I'm usually down under 1.020 and quite possibly very close to my expected final gravity. The main thing here is that I want the remaining fermentation to be fairly quiet. I leave it in the secondary for at least 2 weeks and as long as 4 based on when I have time to bottle. You do not have to worry about leaving it in the secondary too long. The only time that becomes an issue is generally with lagers if you lager in the secondary for several months. I have seen suggestions that you add a little yeast at bottling time in that case. Your un-carbonated batch was probably a problem with something else. In general, you will always have sufficient yeast left in the batch to carbonate the beer in the bottle.