brewers best transfer beer before yeast done

[jetski33]

I use a lot of Northern brewer beer and have started using Brewers Best also. On some of those instructions in Brewers Best it says to let yeast ferment 5 to 7 days and transfer BEFORE fermentation is done. What is up with that? I thought that would defeat the purpose of fermentation in the primary? This is in the instructions of American pale ale and American pale wheat which after 12 days i still have active fermentation which i have never had before in 14 previous beer batches since i have got into home brew. Still have not moved to secondary for fear of losing active fermentation. Any ideas?

 

[Calder]

You will not lose active fermentation if you transfer. A problem some people have is that they ferment cool, and when the yeast slows, it cools, and drops before fermentation is done. Then they rack leaving the 'active' yeast behind.

Also some people (smarter than me in the subject; White & Zainasheff) recommend leaving the beer on the cake for a while after fermentation to help clean up the beer.

 

[Talgrath]

Heads-up, this is a very well tread subject on these forums, you'll get a lot of opinions. Technically speaking, it's unlikely to harm your beer to move it from primary to secondary after seven days; that said there's very little evidence that a transfer to secondary actually helps. Personally, I only transfer to secondary if I am dry-hopping, adding fruit or aging the beer. In my opinion, you can ignore those instructions and let your beer sit with no harm, but the secondary supporters will probably have a different view.

 

[m00ps]

I'm with these guys. Don;t bother with a secondary. You risk oxidation and infection and IMHO it does nothing to improve the beer. In 70-some odd batches I've only ever done 2 secondaries. A cucumber mint saison racked onto 4-5 chopped cukes, and an apple brown ale racked onto 5 chopped apples and a gallon of cider. Smaller stuff like dry hops and spices I just toss in

 

[stru]

Heads-up, this is a very well tread subject on these forums, you'll get a lot of opinions. Technically speaking, it's unlikely to harm your beer to move it from primary to secondary after seven days; that said there's very little evidence that a transfer to secondary actually helps. Personally, I only transfer to secondary if I am dry-hopping, adding fruit or aging the beer. In my opinion, you can ignore those instructions and let your beer sit with no harm, but the secondary supporters will probably have a different view.

I don't even bother transferring to secondary for dry-hopping. I only transfer to secondary when racking onto fruit, etc... or bulk aging.

 

[Talgrath]

I don't even bother transferring to secondary for dry-hopping. I only transfer to secondary when racking onto fruit, etc... or bulk aging.

Well, I mostly transfer to secondary for dry-hopping so I can make room for another beer. Plus I usually dry hop in a bucket for easy hop removal instead of using a carboy as I do for the primary.