Racking sour to secondary...

[BellsBeerDrinker]

Hey all!

I brewed a Saison Brett on National Homebrew Day and pitched the brett about 3 days after the initial yeast pitch.

I have let it age on the yeast cake for 6 months and am ready to rack out of my primary... However, I have been reading that it may not be necessary to rack to a secondary...

My question is, should I go ahead and rack to a secondary and let it sit for another week or two? I am getting conflicted reports and need some clarification!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bensiff]

No need, if it is done and you are ready to bottle, bottle. At this point, unless you were adding fruit or something, racking would do nothing more than add oxygen which is the last thing you want.

 

[BellsBeerDrinker]

i wasn't going to add any fruit, but i was thinking maybe a little lemongrass... but i don't think that it's really necessary...

Also, I wanted to rack to secondary for clarity. I think I will take your advice!!!

Thank you!

 

[Bensiff]

The idea of racking for clarity is a myth, in fact it slows the process. The particles take a certain amount of time to settle and without getting into how clarifying agents interact or temps, the long and short of it is that the larger heavier particles settle first and the smallest and lightest take the longest. You will see this dramatically when the top portion of the beer is dark while the bottom portion is light in color. The particles reflect the light making the portion with higher levels of particles lighter. By racking "for clarity" you actually mix up all the lighter particles that had made it lower into the carboy and redistribute to the entire solution (not to mention anything you may suck up that had already settled) so you would have to again wait for those fine particles to drop from the top to the bottom.

That said, after 6 months if your beer is not clear, you need a fining agent...but, I'm willing to bet you have a well polished beer.

 

[signpost]

I think he was asking for clarification on what an appropriate next step would be (i.e. clearing up his confusion). I don't think he was looking for greater clarification of his beer.

That being said, either you need to let it sit where it is or you need to bottle/keg it. No reason to go to secondary in your situation. Even if you want to add the lemongrass. You can add that directly to the primary without any issues.

The only reasons I go to secondary are 1) to get the beer off the yeast/trub, so I can wash the yeast and use it in a new batch ; 2) to get the beer off the yeast/trub so it is easier to avoid when I transfer to a bottling bucket (I inevitably get some trub sucked up into the auto-siphon, so a second step means I leave more of it behind :cross: ); or 3) just feel like it because I'm bored and can't afford more ingredients to get another batch started.