Length of Time in Primary and/or Secondary

So I keep having these arguments with my dad about how long our beer should sit in primary (when to rack to secondary) and then how long until we keg.

I like the philosophy of racking off the primary as soon as the bubbles slow down. This could be 3 days but usually just wait 5-7 if that happens. We've read instructions from LHBS and their instructions usually just say til the bubbles slow or rack after 5-7 days. My dad always says to keep it on longer and longer (like two weeks primary and two weeks secondary). The most frustrating part is that instructions online and in paper-form encourage to rack when the bubbles slow.

Maybe it's all about the bottle/keg conditioning. What do you guys think?

I think it's been discussed to death on here for the last 4 years (we pioneered the idea of long primary no secondary and the myth of autloysis here), and there are literally thousands of discussions on this site about it. With most of them having great info usually contributed by me in there. This has been discussed, argued, and debated ad-nauseum, til there's really nothing more to say.

This thread is about the best, and has the most rescent discussions and info on it https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/s...amil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/?highlight=jamil

More and more recips including some from Northern Brewers, those appearing in BYO, as well as online are beginning to recommend no secondaries and 3-4 week primaries, which reflects the shift in culture on this topic.

revvy, I do a secondary BUT I also leave in primary 3-4 weeks first. I ONLY do it because when I go from secondary to the bottling bucket I get about zero trub without having to be careful with the racking cane. I can definitely taste a difference in the beers after a longer primary.

Why don't you brew the same recipe and do one your way and then do one your Dad's way and taste the difference. I don't think you will taste much difference. More important than when you move to a secondary (for ales at least), is total time in bulk containers. But 1-3 or 2-2, I doubt will make a difference at homebrew wort sizes.