Avoiding secondary altogether?

[LuxAeterna]

Throughout my batches so far, I've never had the need to rack to secondary, and I've been told and also believe doing so is typically unnecessary. However, whenever I read about adding additional things such as bourbon soaked oak chips, chocolate nibs and vanilla beans, people always say to add to the secondary. I guess my question is, besides long term aging, is using a secondary ever really necessary? My next batch is going to be a chocolate bock and I'm guessing that if I were to add chocolate nibs to the primary I'd probably not want to collect the trub for reusing, but other than that, are there any downfalls?

 

[lumpher]

1 of the hottest-debated topics. personally, i'd rack the beer onto the choco-nibs, but other than something like that, i never secondary. the question of secondarying is the brewer equivalent of politics and religion

 

[gmcastil]

From what I've read, most of the people that favor the notion of extended primaries with no secondary, usually add exceptions for things like oak-aging, fruit additions, etc. Do a forum search for "extended primary" and the first hit should give you plenty to read on the subject.

 

[JLem]

Two things pop to mind:

1) depends on how long you're going to let it sit on the fruit/oak/nibs - if you ferment for a 3-4 weeks and then plan on aging it on nibs for a month, I'd use a secondary.

2) depends on if the additions will sink or float. Do nibs sink? If so, they'll settle down into the trub layer and I'm not sure if you'll get maximal flavor extraction if they're not in direct contact with the beer.

 

[homebrewdad]

the question of secondarying is the brewer equivalent of politics and religion

A truly succinct way to put the issue. I have read and understand the no secondary position, but for now, I still secondary - at least for longer fermenations.

 

[mpenn35]

Two things pop to mind:
2) depends on if the additions will sink or float. Do nibs sink? If so, they'll settle down into the trub layer and I'm not sure if you'll get maximal flavor extraction if they're not in direct contact with the beer.

My thoughts too. I recently did a stout with both cacao nib and vanilla bean additions and while the nibs floated, the beans sunk to the bottom. If I hadn't transferred to secondary, the cut up beans would have likely settled into the trub and been fairly useless, in my opinion.

 

[kagythings]

I know the topic of using a secondary fermentor has been seen a lot, kind of hard to read through it all actually. This thread and the answers were very helpful for a future brew day I have in mind and have taken a few notes. Thank you.

 

[LuxAeterna]

Two things pop to mind:

1) depends on how long you're going to let it sit on the fruit/oak/nibs - if you ferment for a 3-4 weeks and then plan on aging it on nibs for a month, I'd use a secondary.

2) depends on if the additions will sink or float. Do nibs sink? If so, they'll settle down into the trub layer and I'm not sure if you'll get maximal flavor extraction if they're not in direct contact with the beer.

This is precisely the type of answer I was looking for, and gave me insight I hadn't considered. Thank you.

 

[RipeforYelp22]

I have a similar question on the matter. So I just bottled my first IPA Sunday night, and decided to try out an extended primary. I left it to ferment for 3 weeks, racked to the bottling bucket and bottled away. My concern is that it smelled pretty bad. Borderline funky. The beer is very clean and clear (and under control! Ok, I had to do it...) and it tasted just fine, although it is rather bitter so I'm worried that the bitterness is masking the funk. I've read that leaving the beer on the yeast cake for extended periods can cause off flavors, and I didn't smell anything remotely similar in my first batch for which I left in primary for 2wks and secondary for 2wks.

Any thoughts? Sorry to bore you with my newbie woes.

 

[RipeforYelp22]

Here's a pic of it at week 2. Not sure if it even helps since all the trub is at the bottom, but there's no visible sign of infection. The trub looked normal though. Just smelled bad!

 

[JLem]

I have a similar question on the matter. So I just bottled my first IPA Sunday night, and decided to try out an extended primary. I left it to ferment for 3 weeks, racked to the bottling bucket and bottled away. My concern is that it smelled pretty bad. Borderline funky. The beer is very clean and clear (and under control! Ok, I had to do it...) and it tasted just fine, although it is rather bitter so I'm worried that the bitterness is masking the funk. I've read that leaving the beer on the yeast cake for extended periods can cause off flavors, and I didn't smell anything remotely similar in my first batch for which I left in primary for 2wks and secondary for 2wks.

Any thoughts? Sorry to bore you with my newbie woes.

Three weeks in primary is pretty standard - you shouldn't be worried about the yeast cake at this point. The off-odor could be a result of fermentation temps or yeast strain or even hops. I once used some Summit hops and had a terrible garlic/onion aroma.

Hard to say where yours is coming from without more info and/or better description of the odor.

 

[RipeforYelp22]

Yeah I'm thinking it's a temperature issue because the room fluctuates about 5 degrees every day (from 72-77 degrees). I'm definitely going to use a swamp cooler for my next batch I'm cooking up on Friday. Umm, the smell is hard to explain. I guess it smelled like... Damp gym socks? Not putrid but definitely a bit funky. It didn't taste like that at all though, not even a hint.

 

[RipeforYelp22]

My next batch will be a stronger IPA that I'm dry hopping, so I probably will use a secondary anyway.

 

[USMCMatt]

I think most brewers agree now that secondary is totally unnecessary unless you're doing some fruit or really high gravity beer. Needless risk of infection.

 

[helibrewer]

I have two fermentation rules: 1) Never smell beer fermenting, and 2) never smell trub

Uncarbonated beer, especially an IPA will taste pretty bitter, you will feel the bitterness on the backside...perfectly normal. Carbonation changes this pretty dramatically. Tasting green beer is good though, it is educational to learn how the taste develops and what it's like at various stages of maturity.

 

[TTB-J]

I think most brewers agree now that secondary is totally unnecessary unless you're doing some fruit or really high gravity beer. Needless risk of infection.

I just think that's a bit of an oversimplification. There are clarification benefits to transferring to a secondary. There are aging/bulk conditioning benefits. There is the simple practical reality that if you want to free up a larger primary vessel for another batch but it's not quite ready to bottle, then you could transfer to a secondary.

There just is no one rule for whether or not you should use a secondary. What people were fighting against was the common meme from a lot of homebrew shops that "you MUST transfer your beer to a secondary within a week or your beer will suck." That may have been true many years ago, and it's still true if your goal is to sell someone on an extra fermentation vessel - otherwise, there's nothing wrong with letting your beer sit in the primary for a few weeks until you're ready to bottle.

 

[landshark]

I transfer to secondary just to clear a beer. Even if it is only for 3 days. Mostly just to get less of the gunk at the bottom that my racking cane always picks up when I get greedy and want that last little bit o beer....