timeframes

Any thoughts on time frames in primary and secondary for ales and IPA's.
I did a batch of Sierra Nevada ale clone and reached final gravity after 8 days so naturally I thought to transfer to secondary and that's now at a week.
Everything fallen from top but still very cloudy. Plan on cold crashing with gelatin at some point. What effect if any will only 8 days in primary have on batch.

Planning on 3 weeks primary and 1 secondary for next batch. Is there any general rule of thumb.

Any thoughts..
Thanks

 

The general thought these days seems to be that using a secondary is not necessary and does present a very small but still real risk of introducing oxygenation or infection.

I've made very clear beers with no signs of autolysis that sat in the primary for 8+ weeks with no secondary. I've also used a secondary many times to free up my primary vessel or because I wanted the beer of the trub... just because

Generally speaking, the beer is ready to be bottled when the gravity is stable over a period of several days, but more time in the primary won't hurt - and often improves both flavour and clarity.

 

I'd say the "General Rule" is 3 weeks in the fermenter 0 in the secondary unless adding something like fruit....and 3 weeks in bottles. That said.....
2 or 3 readings w/no change means the conversion from sugar to alcohol is done...but...the yeast still needs time to clean up and drop to the bottom there for the 3 week "general" time. A lot depends on the Temp you are fermenting at. I lowered the temp control in my fermenting chest freezer to 61 and it was taking at least another week to finish so I upped it to 6 4.

If you cold crash down to say 35* you don't need the gelatin.

 

My thinking has evolved over the past couple years, to the point where I only rack for cold conditioning if it's a lager, or a lager-like(altbiers), or I really need to let it sit for more than 1 month(Graf,9% Belgian Triple). Otherwise, everything happens in my primary fermenter- dryhop,fruit,cold crash,gelatin. After all, why remove it from the active yeast if you don't need to, and if there still might be some work for the yeast to do. Current SOP for ales is 2-3 weeks in primary at fermentation temps, then cold crash(+/- gelatin) for 1 week before bottling. Or longer if I'm short on time or bottles.

 

Ok here's where I'm at with first ever brew. (Sierra PA clone)

Had 8 days in primary, final grav good.
Racked to secondary and moved to 45-48 cellar cause pretty murky and been 8 days there so far.
Took sample and checked FG yesterday at 8 days secondary and still good. Sample color, smell, taste really surprised me, all beautiful, just flat.
Can't read through it but not bad clarity so far. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Don't want to keep moving to diff temp or cause any more disturbance.
Plan on bottling before game sunday at full two weeks secondary and bottle cond for 3 weeks.

1. Have the ability to cold crash carboy to 34, is this necessary or not since been conditioned at cool 45 for two weeks ? Gelatin ?

2. Will the yeast come back if bottle cond at 65 +/- after two weeks at 45.

Any suggestions on how to finish this first ever batch off without screwing it up would be greatly appreciated.

Doing another ESB this weekend and pretty much have that one lined out but just wanna make sure the first one is gonna be usable in a few weeks.

 

If you can crash it for a couple days, do so, quit racking it around, you're only inviting infection issues or oxygenation.

Once crashed, bottle it up, no need to add yeast, keep the bottles at 70+ for a couple weeks and then fridge a couple to verify they are carbonated and then enjoy!

 

Great thanks for the input. Mistakes will be my greatest teacher.
One last one though, if I CC in the carboy, should I rack straight to bottles with syphon. Seems like the bottling bucket should be omitted based on your reply.
Thanks

 

No... still need to prime with sugar in the bucket and bottle if you want carbonated beer. You could prime each one individually, but I still wouldn't bottle straight out of the carboy.

Easier to rack off the trub so you don't have to worry about it making it into your bottles.

 

+1, sport I wasn't clear on that

 

I wont forget to prime, I guess the oxidation potential going from carboy to bucket to bottle is minimal right ?

 

As long as you siphon properly and minimize splashing or aerating your beer in the process