Secondary Fermentation?

I am on my second extract brewing attempt. The first one turned out well. I skipped the secondary fermentation however and just left it longer in the primary.

This second recipe calls for a secondary fermentation and the addition of some dry hops. I have a 6 Gallon Glass Carboy and a Pale Ale. Ideally it seems like i should primary in a 6 Gallon and the secondary in a 5 gallon carboy but that is not an option this time.

With what i have I am wondering which one you guys think i should primary in and which one I should secondary in?

 

What are u brewing depending on that I would skip the secondary and just leave it in the primary.

 

I'm brewing Northern Brewer's Dead Ringer IPA.

 

Skip the secondary and dry hop it in the primary. Y risk oxidation I just brewed an IIPA and it will all be done in the primary until I go to keg it. I left it in primary for 3 weeks and then dry hopped for one more i keg it on Monday.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm 20 minutes into the boil and will be adding it to the carboy and skipping the secondary.

 

is there a general rule of thumb for when to go with a secondary? why and when would you use one?

 

The beer has been fermenting for almost 3 weeks now. Starting Gravity was 1.064. Last week a added an ounce of dry hops. I was planning on bottling this weekend but the SG is currently 1.033. From the reviews of the beer people were getting much lower FG's, like 1.017. There was 5-6 days of really active fermentation and then things settled down a lot.

Any advice?

 

On second thought after reading some other posts and realizing that the refractometer SG reading needs to be converted after fermentation, My 1.033 is actually 1.015.

Cam someone confirm I did this right?

Thanks

 

My general rule is never! Waste of time with no benefit in my opinion...

 

I only secondary if i want to harvest the yeast for another brew.

 

It's a good way to select the least floculent yeast. At the bottom of your primary, you have yeast that floculates too fast and then the yeast that floculates "eventually" (not counting the trub)... That's the yeast you want. Yeasts that are tough enough to stay around while there's work to be done, but lazy enough to quit when the party is going down. The last yeasts in suspension in the primary are the least floculent yeasts and that's the yeasts that you are transferring to the secondary. While it's perfect for bottling, it's not great for future primary fermentations.

Of course it will work anyway, it's just not the best practice.

 

I have only put beer in a secondary to clear beer after .5 lbs of hops have been sitting in the primary. I am a noob and couldve waited longer but I needed a 6 gallon carboy at the time,

 

If that wasn't clear, I was only commenting about "yeast harvesting from secondaries".

There are advantages to secondary for specific occasions, nobody can debate that...

 

NOT Never... Rack when you need your primary for another batch!

 

You need 2 vessels to "secondary", so you could just use the other one for a primary. There truly is never a need to secondary. You may do it for one reason or another, but my point is it's never a necessary step.