Is secondary beneficial?

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UglySister

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Can anyone help me understand when a secondary carboy is beneficial? I have brewed 6, 5 gal kits and one clone recipe so far. I have always given the beer 1 week in the primary and 1 week in a secondary, then bottled. (I just got set up to keg but haven't filled one yet. I have a Mexican Cerveza in the primary as of yesterday and it will be my first keg)
Thanks.
 
The only time I use a secondary anymore is when I add something that I don't feel comfortable adding to primary. You might get a slightly more clear beer by doing a secondary, but every time you transfer/mess with your beer adds another chance to infect, oxidize or other ways to mess up your beer.

IMO, secondaries are almost never necessary. I have done secondaries in just 4 or 5 of my 93 batches.
 
Generally its not beneficial, and can be detrimental as in any transfer there is o2 pickup and some infection risk.

Cases where it possibly can be useful: Fruit beers and beers that are going to bulk age warm for months.
 
So give it about a week to ferment and then straight to the keg?
 
Leave it in the primary until it falls clear for a few days. usually 1.5 -3 weeks in total. After fermentation is complete, the yeast needs a few days to clean up fermentation byproducts and to floc out. Powdery yeast strains might take longer, require chilling the carboy, or adding a fining agent if they wont clear.
 
Leave it in the primary until it falls clear for a few days. usually 1.5 -3 weeks in total. After fermentation is complete, the yeast needs a few days to clean up fermentation byproducts and to floc out. Powdery yeast strains might take longer, require chilling the carboy, or adding a fining agent if they wont clear.

My beer is in a bottling bucket so I can't see it.
When I plan to keg rather than bottle, should I use carboy as primary?
If yes, how do I transfer, pitch yeast as stir?
 
Carboys work fine for primary but you do need the right brush to clean them. I usually fill mine right up with hot sanitizer and use a carboy brush to scrub the whole inside. You'll have to bend the wire handle of the brush to get every surface.

For transfer I use an auto siphon - http://www.northernbrewer.com/auto-...Jskf3or39ZSZIa4QbssqdIByrj_tGWyHe3RoCeKzw_wcB

Pitching, just hydrate the yeast and pour it in the neck. No need to stir, the yeast will do its thing.
 
I forgot to answer your original question -

I started with secondary fermentations as a matter of course and always did them for at least 15 years. I never had a spoiled batch from too many transfers. I still do secondary fermentation on most of my product even though I have a good size conical that could send beer straight to packaging.

Secondary gives the yeast another chance to drop out, and you don't have to waste as much with leavings in the bottom of the primary bucket. Even if you rack a little yeast from primary to secondary it will fall out and stick to the bottom of the secondary.

I'll skip secondary if I'm doing a hefeweizen and I don't care if it clears or if I'm brewing a quick drinker. Anything that I'm going to keep around for a while should have time to drop clear.
 
Like others said, beneficial. out of 147 gallons last year, i used a secondary for 15 or 20 gallons.
 
So give it about a week to ferment and then straight to the keg?

I wouldn't recommend putting a firm time line on your fermentation processes. I have had several beers take longer than a week. Go by specific gravity... once it is stable, then you know fermentation has stopped.
 
The only time you need to secondary is if you need extended conditioning, e.g oaking or brett and you don't have a keg free.
 
I would definitely go longer than a week for fermentation - at least at the beginning when you are starting out. After you have a bunch of brewing under your belt and are brewing the same beer over and over and know how it behaves - then you might want to cut the time down.
I recommend you go 2 weeks in primary... up to 3 weeks. Then go into keg or bottles.

Bottling buckets work great for fermenters. I like them because you don't need to mess with siphoning as you can use the spigot/gravity.

Make sure you take that spigot all the way apart in between uses in order to clean.... It separates into 2 pieces more than likely. Also, make sure you spray it out with star san before transfer. I also like to keep a plastic baggie over the spigots on my fermenters to keep debris/fruit flies out.

As other said - no need for secondary other than big beers, beers with fruit/oak/coffee type additions, etc.
 
I think even for post fermentation adjuncts it unnecessary unless you are washing the yeast. If you add say fruit peel in secondary you have a greater risk of infection because of increase presence of oxygen.
 
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