dadshomebrewing
Well-Known Member
I must be totally clueless here, but how does doing a two-stage fermentation mean less racking losses? I'm a winemaker, and each time I rack I experience racking losses because it's impossible (even with no lees on the bottom at all) to get every less drop out. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to do a primary only, with a highly flocculant yeast, and then leave it there for 2-3 weeks and crash cool before racking?
I guess I'm just not understanding how adding another racking can mean less racking losses.
Here's the theory, and that's all it is.
I can rack to secondary, and squeeze the last drop out of the primary, knowing that I will get more trub than I really want, and then wait a few days to a week, and bottle.
The theory is that all the junk will fall to the bottom, but the layer of trub will be much, much, smaller, so when I rack to the bottling bucket I get more.
It's a theory to test. So is a good long primary, and probably a few more that I haven't come up with yet.
The bottom line is that if I can increase my yield by a pint I get another bottle, and to me that's worth figuring out.
Besides, what kind of home brewer would I be if I weren't obsessing over something.