Primary or Secondary??????

[gdenmark]

So I have already asked about this and continue to ask people on this topic. I am going to brew within the next couple days a new recipe that I am using that I based off of a recipe within a book I am reading. It is an IPA and is supposed to be a very bitter. The book says to put in a primary fermenter for 5-7 days and then transfer it too a secondary fermenter to 10-14 days.

I do not have a lot of experience and most people I have talked to say to stick to just one fermenter. They say it just does not make sense to go to a secondary fermenter most of the time and using two different fermenters increases the chance of contamination. Sooooooo who has an opinion on this matter.

Also on the recipe I am going to dry hop the last week before bottling. I am not sure if that makes a difference. But still most people have said I should just keep it in the primary fermenter and then dry hop the last week. Please give me some advice and thank you.

 

[TwoFortySX]

Both ways are perfectly acceptable ways to go about making your beer.Everyone is going to have an opinion and some reasoning but the fun thing about this hobby is developing those opinions. Why don't you try it one way and see how it goes, after a few more batches, try the same recipe again and do the opposite. You will still make good beer and best of all, enjoy doing it!

 

[Golddiggie]

Personally, I ferment in one carboy/vessel... I only rack to another (when not the bottling bucket) once the brew is finished and I'm adding another flavor element that will take significant time... Or, I'm adding another flavor element and want to clean what it's been inside of.

I have a wee heavy that has been on the yeast for almost 6 weeks now. I'll be shifting it over from the carboy into a 1/6 Sanke keg to sit on oak cubes for ~4 weeks (could be more, maybe less)... I could do it right in the primary, if I wanted to. I just want to clean that sucker and set it aside...

I have other brews that are not getting additional flavor items that sit on the yeast for 3-6 weeks without issue. One I brewed almost two weeks ago will get whole hops added to the primary in about a week, for about 7 days before I bottle it up.

I see the racking to secondary after X days as being a carry over from the dark ages of home brewing. Back when it did some good. These days, even the founding fathers of home brewing have changed their opinions on this method and are going with more long primaries, and no racking to secondary, or bright tanks...

Way I see it... Long primaries (at least for ale yeasts) means less work, and great brew time after time. Rack to a bright tank and you could get just as good a brew, but you do open it up to additional contamination risks, and make more work for yourself... Would you rather do more work and have higher risk, or less work with greatly reduced (or no additional) risk?

 

[camus]

+1 on TwoFortySX's sane rational thinking.

If I would add to it, my IPA's are a couple of weeks in the primary and then dry hopped in the secondary for just short of a couple of weeks. See the timeline? Nothing definitive. Seriously, I don't move a beer unless I have too.

 

[Weizenwerks]

I only rack to a secondary tank when adding a flavoring, lagering, pitching a different yeast or more of the same yeast.

Right now I have a pilsner that's been fermenting at 62 degrees with a hefeweizen yeast for 3 days. The kraeusen has diminished. Tomorrow I will transfer to a secondary tank, pitch a starter using a lager yeast, and finish it at 45 degrees. The beer will take on the flavors of the hefeweizen yeast but not the lager yeast, as the lager yeast serves as the conditioning yeast. That is one practical example where a secondary tank would be of use.

If you have two fermenters, split the batch and see what happens. After the 5-7 days, transfer half the wort to a clean and sanitized vessel, then dry hop both of them. You'll have one just fermented in a single vessel and one fermented in a secondary all out of the same batch of beer. Then you can have a side by side comparison. I also suggest the transfer be done as quickly as possible to ward off chances of infection.

A lot of questions in home brewing will be answered by "it depends". It's a craft. Try it out and see what works best for your system and your focus. The boil, fermentation, and yeast are your three areas to understand.

 

[TTB-J]

If you use a secondary, you will die.

 

[DrMaddVibe]

If you use a secondary, you will die.