Secondary Fermentation?

[RiseAgainstMe]

Ok so I am going crazy trying to figure out if I should or shouldn't do a secondary. I brewed my first and second batches of beer yesterday. One is an English Brown and the other a Two-Hearted clone. And yes I have searched for info but still wanted some as up to date as possible. Also whether or not it would be good for one or both of the beers I made, or just leave both in the primary for a while and then bottle.
Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[stratslinger]

The common advice around here seems to be to skip secondary unless adding fruit, dry hopping, or oaking...

That said, every brew I've been involved with has been racked to secondary and allowed an extra week or two there. The results have been very clear (not cloudy) beers. Of course, since I haven't skipped secondary, I don't have anything to compare to, but I'll be sticking to secondary, personally.

 

[Calder]

Why do you want to use a secondary? If you can't answer that, then you don't need it.

The yeast reproduce, create alcohol and lots of esters, DMS, diecetyl, and fusel alcohols. Then the yeast drops. Lots of people rack at this point.

Need to keep the beer on the yeast for 1 or 2 more weeks. The yeast clean up the DMS, diecetyl, and convert some of the fusel alcohols to esters. If you take it off the yeast, there is less yeast left to clean up.


Now saying that; I do rack to Secondary, but not all the time. I rack to secondary:
- If I ferment at a high temp (accelerates yeast breakdown).
- If I want to dry hop. I harvest yeast from most of my batches, and don't want the hops in it.
- If I add fruit or spices (same reason as above.
- If I'm going to leave it for more than 2 months before I bottle.

 

[Seven]

I loves me some Two Hearted and my personal opinion would be to secondary the Two Hearted clone for the dry hopping. I don't think you'll need to secondary the English brown.

 

[RiseAgainstMe]

I loves me some Two Hearted and my personal opinion would be to secondary the Two Hearted clone for the dry hopping. I don't think you'll need to secondary the English brown.

I think this makes sense to me...thanks

 

[RiseAgainstMe]

Also I have those stick on thermometers....The one on the carboy says 74-76 and the one on the bucket says 68-70 and they are right next to each other...So I guess just wondering are those things that inaccurate?

 

[arnoldk2]

I always rack to a secondary and never had an issue. The reason I transfer is because after the primary fermentation is done I want the beer to clarify a little more. So when you bottle the beer there wont be as much sediment on the bottom of the beer bottle. I also want to get it off the yeast cake as leaving it on the yeast cake for an extended period of time can produce off flavors. It is just a personal thing. I've drank many a beer that never had been racked to the secondary and it tasted fine.

 

[RM-MN]

Also I have those stick on thermometers....The one on the carboy says 74-76 and the one on the bucket says 68-70 and they are right next to each other...So I guess just wondering are those things that inaccurate?

I think both thermometers are accurate and inaccurate at the same time. The glass (or plastic Better Bottle) conducts heat faster than the thicker plastic of the bucket so the thermometer on the plastic bucket is more influenced by the temperature of the air making it less accurate of the temperature of the fermenting wort inside. The other factor is there is different worts inside the fermenters and one may be fermenting faster than the other and giving off more heat leading to differing temperatures. You may have used different yeasts for the batches which will influence the temperature of the ferment also.

 

[jeffmeh]

You can certainly dry hop in the primary, although as stated above it makes it a bit more challenging if you are going to harvest and wash the yeast. I dry hop in primary frequently, cold-crash with gelatin, and my beers are perfectly clear.

 

[cms]

This is a terrible reason to secondary, but I just want to see something after a week or two. And by that time, I'm anxious to do something. So I have racked to secondary for both my batches and will probably continue.

I don't have much experience to go by, but I believe there's enough yeast in suspension after the primary fermentation to continue to perform the necessary clean-up duties (and subsequent carbonation duties). I also feel like I can perform this operation without significant aeration to the beer or with an unreasonable amount of exposure to bacteria (which at this point will be harder-pressed to affect the beer since the alcohol level is up).

That's my understanding, at least, so I intend to continue using a secondary. But it's good to know that if, for whatever reason, I can't make time to do this at the 1 week mark then I will not be hurting my batch. Maybe I'll end up with the clearest, most tasty batch of my life and change my thinking.

YMMV

 

[dcp27]

They're your firsts so your gunna want to rush, but just leave them both in the primary for at least 2 weeks and then either secondary or leave them be for another week or 2. I'd just leave them in the primary for at least 3 weeks unless you need to free one up for another brew, you're not gunna get any off-flavors from it and it'll be just as clear.