Porter Secondary Time

[Joseph524]

Hello
I made a .1061 gravity porter let ferment out 1 week then moved to secondary and has been 2 weeks now. I see some porters get kegged in 2 weeks some 4. What effects the time? I know higher gravity might require more time. This is not a kit, I made it up. I am just wondering transfer or let sit more?

Thanks

 

[Setesh]

A few things here:

Secondary isn't really needed unless you are adding something to the beer or the beer has to sit for a long time. If you are adding fruit, oak, bret, etc then secondary is a better option. For normal beers like your porter primary only is fine. When you transfer you introduce oxygen and the possibility of infection. As long as your yeast were healthy there is no reason to pull your beer off the cake that soon. 3-4 weeks on the yeast won't be a problem.

The time before you package your beer is really down to when it has stopped fermenting. Take a hydrometer sample 3 days in a row. If there is no change then your beer is done and can be packaged. I prefer to leave my beer in primary for 2-4 weeks depending on OG to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves. I find it gives me a cleaner tasting beer. A lot of this depends on the temperature you ferment at as well. If you control your ferment temps there is much less for the yeast to clean up and you can go to packaging sooner.

What gravity is it at now?

 

[billl]

Gravity, complexity of the grain bill, yeast health, fermentation conditions etc all impact how long it takes a beer to condition to it's prime. There is no magic formula though.

Just take some gravity readings to confirm it is at FG and taste a sample. If it tastes fine, go ahead and keg. If it tastes a little rough around the edges, let it sit.

 

[BlackGoat]

as said before, a secondary isn't necessary and your beer would have benefited from remaining on the yeast another few weeks. At this point its probably ready to package, but you should take successive gravity readings a day or two apart to see if its done fermenting.

 

[Joseph524]

Thanks for the replies. I normally secondary every time, because I dry hop most of the time. There is plenty of info stating pro's or con's. I have been cold crashing for 1-2 days now it it help settle the hop and anything else before transferring.

 

[Setesh]

Thanks for the replies. I normally secondary every time, because I dry hop most of the time. There is plenty of info stating pro's or con's. I have been cold crashing for 1-2 days now it it help settle the hop and anything else before transferring.

Do you have a hydrometer? That is really what you need to depend on for knowing when to transfer. Dry hopping in primary works great BTW. Good luck to you.

 

[Joseph524]

Yes I have that and a refractometer. Have to get up to speed a bit more with the meter.

 

[BigFloyd]

Yes I have that and a refractometer. Have to get up to speed a bit more with the meter.

A refractometer is a very useful tool for gravity readings prior to fermentation. Great for checking things along the way while doing an AG batch. After that, the presence of alcohol skews the reading, making it artificially too high. There are corrective calculators that can be used. Some folks trust them, others do not. For beers that are near or at the finish of fermentation, I use a hydrometer.

 

[mtnagel]

But they will be off by the same amount every time, so refractometers are perfect for telling you if your beer is done fermenting as they only require a few drops of beer everyday.

 

[sweetcell]

Thanks for the replies. I normally secondary every time, because I dry hop most of the time. There is plenty of info stating pro's or con's. I have been cold crashing for 1-2 days now it it help settle the hop and anything else before transferring.

you can dry hop in primary. cold-crash the hops before transferring to a keg or bottling bucket.