Any advantage to move to secondary before bottling?

[jaaron91]

Sunday we're bottling our first batch, which will have been two weeks since brewday. Would there be any advantage to moving the beer to secondary to get fermentation to stop before we bottle? I know moving it always risks infection and whatnot. Thanks for the help.

Cheers

 

[tally350z]

Check the gravity before you do anything. If its contstant over a few days. Ready to bottle. If not let it sit. Only really need to rack to secondary if your trying to "clean" the beer up, or dry hopping.

 

[Golddiggie]

None... I wouldn't schedule the bottling day until you KNOW fermentation has completely stopped. To do otherwise risks injury from bottle bombs. IME, 3 weeks is the minimum I'll go before bottling/kegging a batch. That's with a highly flocculating yeast too. If you used a yeast that isn't rated high in flocculation, plan to give it more time.

Taste the hydrometer samples when you're trying to determine if the batch is done. If you don't have a hydrometer, GET ONE before you even think about bottling.

 

[sweetcell]

what the others said - you bottle when the beer is ready, not by a calendar. yeast works on its own time. maybe 2 weeks is plenty. maybe is isn't. only one way to know: 3 days of consistent hydrometer readings.

secondary will not stop fermentation, it'll only slow it down. so if you bottle before all sugars are fermented, moving to secondary is a bad idea since there is a better chance of those sugars making it into the bottle and creating bottle bombs. that's why you shouldn't transfer to secondary (or bottle) until fermentation is complete.

some people swear by secondary, but there seems to be an emerging trend to skip it unless there is a specific reason: adding fruit, extended bulk aging (6 weeks or more), dry-hopping (although DH'ing can be done in primary just fine), adding wood chips, etc.

 

[Homebrew22]

I always use a secondary! That said is is not a must. i do so to get a clear beer. I have trasferred my beer two to three time to clear it up. It is really about personal perference!

 

[pjj2ba]

Sunday we're bottling our first batch, which will have been two weeks since brewday. Would there be any advantage to moving the beer to secondary to get fermentation to stop before we bottle? I know moving it always risks infection and whatnot. Thanks for the help.

Cheers

It sounds like you are new to brewing, in which case, for simplicity sake, I would leave it in the primary. As the others said, do several hydrometer checks to make sure there is no change and the beer is done fermenting.

Once you have some experience under your belt, go ahead and try using a secondary - preferably using a recipe you've done before. There are some subtle flavor differences between primary only and secondaried beers. You may find you have a preference. Remember that as you gain experience, your beers will get better, so keep that in mind when evaluating one method over the other to make sure you pick one or the other for the right reason (method change vs more experience).

 

[midfielder5]

It may or may not be finished fermenting-- 2 weeks is a pretty tight schedule for a beginner.

It can be done, and the beer can taste good, IF (!!) you pitched a lot (!) of healthy yeast AND you had good fermentation temp control (under 68* for most ales!).

if you miss one or more of the above, bottling after two weeks is too early and your beer will likely not taste as good if you waited another week or so before checking hydrometer sample.

so also pls tell us what yeast- dry, liquid - did you make a starter for the liquid; and what ferm temps you had.
cheers,
Wendy

 

[DonMagee]

As a general rule I don't secondary. I don't really see any advantage to it. You have to be a bit more careful when racking to the bottling bucket, but otherwise the end product is the same (in my opinion). I normally don't even bother checking the gravity of my beers for 2 weeks, but I don't think I've bottled any until at least 3 weeks.

I will be kegging an irish red I have that is going to be 2 weeks old this weekend, but I'm rushing it for my birthday party and I know the gravity has been stable all week.