To rack or not to rack

[jalc6927]

I've always racked my brew into a glass secondary after initial fermentation.

Been seeing quite a few comments stating this is not needed?

Doesn't racking give you a clearer brew? And help condition the beer for better taste?

Is there any style that absolutely has to be racked into secondary?

Thanks

 

[cubalz]

I've always racked my brew into a glass secondary after initial fermentation.

Been seeing quite a few comments stating this is not needed?

Doesn't racking give you a clearer brew? And help condition the beer for better taste?

Is there any style that absolutely has to be racked into secondary?

Thanks

No need to rack unless you are brewing a fruit beer or a high gravity beer that you want to ferment for a long time. I stopped racking into a secondary over 20 years ago and for the record, my beers condition much better on the yeast cake than off in a secondary. Cold crashing makes beers clearer better than racking into a secondary would ever do.

 

[jalc6927]

Ok, can you give me a quick lesson on cold crashing

 

[jalc6927]

And about half my beer has fruit, so I'll continue racking those

 

[Gytaryst]

I used to rack to secondary on my bigger Belgians. But the more I read on it, there seemed to be overwhelming evidence against racking to secondary and the few weak reasons given for it didn't seem to be important concerns to me. I also remember reading something from Brulosophy where he did an experiment and had 25 or 30 people doing a taste test and almost all of them preferred the beer that hadn't been racked to secondary. If I remember right the experiment didn't have anything to do with primary or secondary fermentation, it was just something he threw in and while that particular aspect didn't have anything to do with the experiment he commented on how surprised he was at those findings.

I'm getting ready to do an oktoberfest lager and I'll rack to secondary on that one just because it will be sitting for months and I do want as clear a beer as I can get on this one. But for ales, even my big Belgians, 3 to 4 weeks in primary and then bottle conditioned. As I write this I'm sipping on a chocolate raspberry stout I brewed 0n July 9th, (46 days ago), and bottled on July 19th, (36 days ago). It only sat in the fermenter for 10 days. It was done fermenting in 4 days when I added a pound and a half of raspberries and cacao nibs. I was nervous letting those sit in there too long because I didn't want those flavors to be overpowering. I took a couple readings, the FG was lower than anticipated, so I bottled, planning to let it sit in the bottle at least 3 months. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to crack one open. It surpasses all my expectations. So I've been drinking one a week and they continue to develop nicely. Not sure if there will be any left in 3 months, but who cares.

 

[jalc6927]

So you don't even cold crash just set at room temp? Seems much easier and less chance of contamination, do you brew fruit beer, and if so do you secondary them

 

[Wildcat_Brewing]

cold crashing is getting the beer cold (30-40 degrees) for 24-72 hours before kegging/bottling. It drops the yeast out of suspension, as well as other particles, and solidifies the yeast cake and trub. Makes racking much easier and beer much clearer, I use gelatin also. I never secondary except for lagering and do my first dry hop and fruit/spice additions in the primary vessel. I would only secondary if aging for more than 3 weeks.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

I've only been doing this hobby for a year, but I'm under the impression that you shouldn't rack unless you have a good reason to rack, since you run a somewhat greater risk of oxidation. Plus, it's more work, and who wants that? Good reasons to rack would include racking on top of something that might otherwise splash if you dumped it in primary (wood cubes, fruit), aging for a few months (racking to a smaller container reduces headspace), or using a different yeast (e.g., Brett in secondary only). Racking doesn't seem to improve clarity, because things settle out of your beer naturally whether or not there's anything under them, and it's not hard to transfer to a bottling bucket while leaving behind little if any trub.

 

[jturman35]

I'm a noob as well and my instructions for my first brew is a BB Red Ale kit that says to rack into a secondary ? I only have a 6 gal glass carboy. It sounds like I'm good with just staying with the primary?

 

[shortyz]

if your racking for clarity its a mis-nomer. what i have found is the yeast is the big player in clarity.

 

[RM-MN]

I'm a noob as well and my instructions for my first brew is a BB Red Ale kit that says to rack into a secondary ? I only have a 6 gal glass carboy. It sounds like I'm good with just staying with the primary?

Most kit instructions say to rack to secondary as that is what the big brewers do. They were written as home brewing was getting started and nobody knew why the big brewers had to rack and why home brewers do not. Now that we know it isn't needed, those instructions need to be updated but nobody has the time or budget to do so and they instructions are just copied.

 

[jalc6927]

So to summarize racking is not needed in most cases, just let it sit it primary for 2 weeks, then if FG is good, bottle or keg

Sounds good, racking is a pain

Thanks everyone

Have a beer, on me!![emoji482][emoji482][emoji482]

 

[r4dyce]

Someone once told me on these forums that the biggest thing racking does is give impatient brewers something to do. Lol

 

[jturman35]

The guy at my local brew store said to let ferment for 4 weeks in the primary. He has been brewing since 1973. I hear others say 2 weeks is enough. Decisions, decisions!

 

[RM-MN]

The guy at my local brew store said to let ferment for 4 weeks in the primary. He has been brewing since 1973. I hear others say 2 weeks is enough. Decisions, decisions!

Beer ferments until it is done. That can happen in less than a week including the cleanup. However, your beer will at that point have lots of yeast and hop trub suspended in it and if you bottle or keg it then, all that will end up in the bottle or keg.

If you wait until 10 days, much of the trub will have settled out. Judicious use of a hydrometer will let you know if the beer has completed fermentation and give you a hint of how clear the beer may be as you can look through the sample.

At 2 weeks most beers can be bottled or kegged with little suspended material. Again, use the hydrometer to verify that fermentation is done as I have had one batch that stalled and then restarted after the 2 week period.

At 4 weeks most of the suspended yeast will have settled. This leaves you with little yeast sediment in the bottle or keg. In addition, conditioning that would otherwise happen in the bottle or keg will have started so you don't need to wait as long after bottling to have good beer to drink.

 

[jalc6927]

Awesome nice timeline very helpful

 

[ncbrewer]

Some, including myself, check gravity twice, 2 - 3 days apart, to make sure it is stable. If it has dropped by the second check, it's still fermenting, so not ready to bottle. Just being at predicted FG doesn't mean it's finished. Bottle bombs can be dangerous.

 

[Gytaryst]

I've only been doing this hobby for a year, but I'm under the impression that you shouldn't rack unless you have a good reason to rack,

I think having a "good reason" to do it could be said about pretty much every aspect of brewing.

since you run a somewhat greater risk of oxidation. Plus, it's more work, and who wants that?

Without a closed system it's virtually impossible to keep oxygen out of your beer. Racking does obviously add some oxygen, depending on how careful you are. It affects how long the beer will keep before getting that stale wet cardboard flavor. If you tend drink your beer within a month or two, (or three), then a lot of the stress over oxygenation is exaggerated. I think the bigger concern would be that racking provides more chance for infection or contamination.

As far "it's more work, and who wants that?" I can spend 6 or 7 hours brewing beer... It's a lot of "work" but I enjoy it and don't mind a bit. Pushing a vacuum cleaner around the room only takes 5 or 10 minutes and isn't nearly as physically or mentally demanding or labor intensive, and it still takes everything I got to work up the ambition to do it - I HATE it. It's "work."

Not trying to be argumentative - just using your comment to make a point. There's "work", and then there's "work." And they're not necessarily the same thing. I thought your user name was ironic. Brewing beer is a lot of "work" and by the time you figure in the equipment costs and ingredients, you're probably spending more money on this hobby than you ever did just "buying" beer.

Again, just a friendly observation.

CHEERS!

 

[corkybstewart]

if your racking for clarity its a mis-nomer. what i have found is the yeast is the big player in clarity.

As are time and gravity!

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

The reason nobody uses a secondary anymore is its believed it ups the chances of infection and oxidation. without any payoff.

My understanding is homebrew started out back in the day mimicking the big breweries. Large breweries use huge vessels, 1000's of gallons. The weight of the liquid would crush the yeast giving off flavors so they racked to get the beer off the yeast as soon as it was done....so that what we home brewers did.
Now its understood its not needed on the homebrew scale as 5 gallons isn't crushing anything and the yeast is perfectly fine sitting on the bottom of a 5 gallon fermenter. Therefore no racking to secondary is needed.

 

[Mainer]

Everybody is going to tell you that it's not necessary, and they're right that it's not necessary. I, however, am going to be the contrarian and tell you that I still find it useful even when it's not especially high gravity or fruit.
I find that by leaving behind the bulk of the trub and yeast in the primary fermenter and allowing it to flocculate again in secondary, I reduce the amount of sediment that gets sucked through my siphon into my bottling bucket, thus reducing unsightly bottle sediment. People are right that increases your chances of infection or oxidation. I find it worth the tradeoff, and with thorough sanitation, the risk of infection is still minimal.
There are probably gadgets and gizmos that could accomplish the same thing without the risk. Nevertheless, I choose to rack.
Bring on the hate.

 

[Mainer]

(I should raise the possibility that cold-crashing would, indeed, accomplish the same thing, vis-a-vis reducing sediment, without the need to rack. My setup is pretty old-school, and I ferment without temperature control, so racking works for me. I stand by my choices.)

 

[SlitheryDee]

Everybody is going to tell you that it's not necessary, and they're right that it's not necessary. I, however, am going to be the contrarian and tell you that I still find it useful even when it's not especially high gravity or fruit.
I find that by leaving behind the bulk of the trub and yeast in the primary fermenter and allowing it to flocculate again in secondary, I reduce the amount of sediment that gets sucked through my siphon into my bottling bucket, thus reducing unsightly bottle sediment. People are right that increases your chances of infection or oxidation. I find it worth the tradeoff, and with thorough sanitation, the risk of infection is still minimal.
There are probably gadgets and gizmos that could accomplish the same thing without the risk. Nevertheless, I choose to rack.
Bring on the hate.

No hate here. I just made a fruit beer that makes use of a tertiary fermenter (wild strawberry blonde from this forum). I had forgotten how pleasing the beer looks off the trub with just a slight dusting of clean looking yeast at the bottom. After 2 weeks primary, one week secondary, one week tertiary, and one week cold crashing that one will probably finally be ready to bottle tomorrow. It looks very clear right now. I give almost no thought to oxidation because I've never seen any negative effects from it, even on batches that I have botched the transfer of to the extent that I was convinced it would be present. My sanitation regimen is pretty sound I think, so I don't worry overmuch about that either.

For no reason other than laziness and expedience I normally don't secondary though. I find I can avoid all the sediment when bottling just by suspending the siphon about halfway into the beer and slowly lowering it as the level goes down. I'll need to leave just a bit of beer on top of the yeast anyway to swirl it up for harvesting. That leaves one less fermentation vessel for me to have to clean as well.