I am wondering about the "ideal" time spent on the primary cake after active fermentation has ended - I'm sure this varies for beer varieties, and definitely differs with ciders. I'm relatively new and it sounds like ciders are taken off the cake fairly quickly after primary fermentation ends. How does this work with beers? I started an EPA extract kit, based on the FG it appears fermentation has ended after 5 days. The kit instructions are vague - leave in primary for 1-2 weeks. Based off the threads I have read so far, it sounds like people vary widely in how long they leave beers on primary, and if secondary is even necessary. Are there benefits to leaving the beer on the cake for several weeks after fermentation has attenuated?
Time on primary cake - comparison
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Generally, 2-3 weeks is not excessive in primary.
Secondary is only really useful for 3 different things:
-harvesting yeast if you want to dry hop.
-fruit additions.
-long, several month aging beers.
otherwise, it's mostly just rising infection.
My own rule is to keep it in primary for 2 weeks after the most active fermentation is done, this cleans up any byproducts best from own experience.
Secondary is only really useful for 3 different things:
-harvesting yeast if you want to dry hop.
-fruit additions.
-long, several month aging beers.
otherwise, it's mostly just rising infection.
My own rule is to keep it in primary for 2 weeks after the most active fermentation is done, this cleans up any byproducts best from own experience.
^^^ What kharnynb said. You'll find that this is really debated a lot on HBT. I'm in the "leave it alone until ready to keg or bottle" camp, while others swear up and down you've got to rack your beer into a secondary to have it clear. Here's a good read that'll give you something a little more objective. Primary vs Secondary. If you haven't already started looking at the Brulosophy site, I recommend you do so. It debunks a lot of "common knowledge" used in home brewing. Here's an example of a beer that went straight from primary into the keg (I did use gelatin to fine it.)
