First Time Brewer: Skipping secondary fermentation, bottling and a few other questions

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adivis12

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I'm brewing my first batch of home brew, 'Hank's Hefeweizen' from Norther Brewer (extract). The instructions say 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, and 2 weeks bottle conditioning. I did not check my OG, but the kit states that it should be 1.052.

I am on day 10 of fermentation. I checked the SG at days 8 and 10, and it has not changed from day 8 to 10. It's sitting at 1.010. I tried the beer on both days and it tastes like beer (it's really good) and is somewhat carbonated. It's cloudy, but not more cloudy that some hazy IPAs I've had recently and doesn't have anything floating around I wouldn't want to drink. I do not plan on doing secondary fermentation as I keep reading that it's really not required unless you are making a strong beer, dry hopping or adding fruit.

I also plan on kegging instead of bottling. Luckily I already have a corney keg and kegerator from when I used to make carbonated water, so I plan on skipping bottling and kegging/force carbonating.

A few questions:

Question 1:

I was originally planning on leaving the beer in the primary fermenter for 4 weeks (2 weeks primary, plus the 2 weeks that should/could have been in secondary, but in the primary since I chose not to do secondary fermentation).

If the beer tastes good now, why wouldn't I be able to keg it right now? I'm not in a hurry, I'm just wondering what the point of waiting is if the fermentable sugar is gone and there are no off flavors that will be reduced. It does not seem that further conditioning is necessary.

Question 2:

If I'm at the point I can keg it, do I need to 'cold crash' in the primary fermenter before moving to the keg?

Question 3:

When I move the beer from the primary fermenter to the keg, can I use the spigot that's on the bucket or do I need to siphon it? I would have used the spigot if I was moving from primary to a secondary fermenter, but is there a reason I should siphon if I'm skipping secondary fermenting? Perhaps using a siphon help me avoid all of the gunk on the bottom of the bucket? That being said, the gunk seems to be below my spigot anyway.

Question 4:

Priming sugar is not necessary if I'm kegging and force carbonating, is that correct? Could I use priming sugar to cause carbonation in the corney keg and only use CO2 to push the beer to the tap? i.e. naturally carbonate in keg and then serve with CO2.

Final question:

If I'm indeed ready to keg this, why is my beer ready in 10 days vs the 4 week recommendation that the kit states (2 primary, 2 secondary). To be fair, the kit instructions say 'timing is somewhat flexible' during secondary fermentation, but that timing is still technically at least a week or two away. It seems strange that the beer is drinkable so far ahead of schedule.
 
SECONDARY FERMENTATION - OPTIONAL*

I believe hefeweizens are cloudy.
I usually primary for 14 days but often get lazy and it stays in primary longer. Sometimes much longer.
If a style is supposed to be clear it may take some extra time in primary to get clear.
Aging dark beers is sometimes beneficial. I wouldn't think the hefeweizen needs any aging.
I would say it is ready now.
If you use the spigot, make sure you have tubing that reaches the bottom of the keg.
The beer will cold crash in the keg. And that should make the beer more clear. The first few draws might have a lot of sediment.
I wouldn't bother with priming in the keg as a first go.
Purging the keg with co2 is a good idea to keep oxidation to a minimum. I have never bothered with that, yet.

The directions for 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary and 2 weeks bottle conditioning is old school. I don't know why they still have that process in their instructions.

And if bottling, you might have fully carbonated in 2 weeks - or not.. I have tried mine at 2 weeks, some yes, some no. ALL have tasted better at 3 weeks.
 
It's ready now, meaning I could force carbonate and drink it today if I wanted? Seems crazy it's so far ahead of schedule. It's starting to seem like the 'conditioning' phase is a matter of personal preference. Condition until the beer tastes/looks how I please.

Regarding the 'old school' comment: what makes it old school? Why follow this method in the past but not today?
 
1. It's a hefeweizen. It's supposed to be cloudy and have suspended yeast (that's the hefe part)
2. Hefe's are supposed to be drunk young. Yours could have been kegged at day 8 or earlier and you could have begun drinking it on day 9 or sooner. Cold crashing settles the yeast. Now it is a Weizen or Crystalweizen, not a hefeweizen as it has little yeast left in suspension. Wheat beers don't benefit from maturing like darker beers do.
3. Getting yeast into the keg is fine, its a hefeweizen. The proteins that settled out first are not so good in your beer. Try to keep it out. The spigot should work but you may want to only open it partially.
4. Priming the beer with sugar will help keep the yeast stirred up. It isn't necessary and you might want to just pressure the keg with the CO2 cylinder this time. Maybe next time....or maybe not.
Final. It is so easy to write the instructions once and then just copy/paste them, sort of a generic instruction set. Ignore most of the instructions. Different beers have different requirements. You wouldn't want to ferment a pale ale at 80F but that is fine for a saison. Your hefeweizen is ready as soon as fermentation is done but the Russian Imperial Stout will need 6 to 12 months in the keg before it gets really good.
 
It's ready now, meaning I could force carbonate and drink it today if I wanted? Seems crazy it's so far ahead of schedule. It's starting to seem like the 'conditioning' phase is a matter of personal preference. Condition until the beer tastes/looks how I please.

Regarding the 'old school' comment: what makes it old school? Why follow this method in the past but not today?

Much of what we "understand" about brewing comes from commercial breweries where getting the beer out of the fermenter is important but does not really apply to home brewing.
 
In a commercial setting the yeast are under hundreds or thousands of gallons of beer, the pressure is what makes the need to remove the spent yeast. In the past "old school" it was just a transfer of commercial steps to homebrew steps. In a homebrew setting, the risks of oxidation and contamination far out weigh any benefits of doing a secondary. There are still people that think their beers are better when secondaried. I did a couple and could not detect a difference when secondary was skipped so I just don't trouble with the extra work.
 
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