temperature for secondary \ kit \ dark ale

I've made a change to this batch. Instead of using a pressure barrel as secondary- which also carbonates and you can drink straight out of the barrel, I have decanted into a non-pressurised secondary with an air lock with the intention of bottling later.

So I have not used priming sugar in the secondary like I do with a pressure barrel, but I am wondering whether to keep the secondary on the pad heater as it gets down to about 10 celcius here at night.

I guess if it's just supposed to be clearing in secondary, it shouldn't be heated?

 

Don't have my handy ancient temperature to real temperature converter but colder secondary is better, makes for a clear beer, secondary in my cellar this winter went to 38F.

 

how long was it in the primary? assuming it's fully done fermenting and had a little extra time for conditioning (letting the yeast clean up after themselves), then colder is better, it will clear more quickly.

actually fahrenheit is older than celsius :fro:

 

38f is 3.33C



Nick

 

OK, cooler is better in secondary then. I guess the bit that is confusing is that when I add priming sugar in the bottling stage it needs to be a little warmer to start it fermenting again to produce the CO2? So - I goes warm, cool, warm again, then in the fridge.

P.S> Im not sure about Farenheight, I thought it was a movie. 10 celcius feels a bit parky for us soft sotherners, definately cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!