Brewers Best English Pale Ale/ Secondary fermentation

[sclary18]

Just picked up a new extract kit. Brewers best English pale ale. I plan on brewing in the next few days. I want to try out secondary fermentation on this one but I'm unsure how long to leave it in the primary carboy before transferring to my other carboy. I was wondering if someone with more experience could share their thoughts before the brew.

Also does anyone have any tips with this particular kit? To my surprise, these instructions are very detailed.

 

[RM-MN]

Look up the strain of yeast to see what its preferred temperature range is and keep the fermenter temperature near the bottom of this range until the ferment has slowed down, then bring the fermenter to room temp until the hydrometer reading quits changing, usually around ten days to two weeks. Be careful when you transfer so you don't end up with a lot of splashing or you can oxidize your beer.

 

[sclary18]

Ok thanks!

 

[mark7347]

The only tip I have for you is that unless you are lagering or dry hopping, secondary is more potential trouble than it's worth.

Sent from my HTC One using Home Brew mobile app

 

[BigFloyd]

The only tip I have for you is that unless you are lagering or dry hopping, secondary is more potential trouble than it's worth.

True dat ^^^^^.

Take a moment and ask yourself, "would it help my beer to take it off the yeast into a second vessel during fermentation?" and "how would it help?"
For an English pale, what you're doing by moving it is increasing the risk of oxidation and a stuck fermentation, but you're not actually gaining anything.

I do wish that Brewers Best would update their kit instructions to delete this part except for beers that are going to be bulk aged, cold lagered, have fruit added or dry hopped (if you want to harvest the yeast). To do it in homebrewing for all styles is an out-dated practice based on commercial brewing where leaving the beer sit atop the yeast in a large stainless conical vessel can cause autolysis due to the great weight of the beer pressing down on the yeast.

 

[sclary18]

Makes sense. I'm very new to brewing so I'm still figuring it out. Any tips on steeping the grains?

 

[BigFloyd]

Makes sense. I'm very new to brewing so I'm still figuring it out. Any tips on steeping the grains?

I like the KISS method of steeping. Start heating the water, put the muslin sack with grains in the water. When it hits 160*F, remove from heat and cover. Let it sit 30 minutes. Pull out the bag and let it drip into the pot. If you want to sparge, great.

 

[sclary18]

What's sparge?

 

[RM-MN]

What's sparge?

Sparge is adding clean water to rinse out more of the sugars and color. You can pour through or dunk to do this.