How long in secondary?

[sub1427]

How long is a good time for a brew to stay in the 2ndary? Im brewing a beligain white hoegarden clone. Is it normal for the top to be a lot lighter then the bottom, I know its going to take time for the beer to settle but i have two cornys coming in about a week so would it be ok to transfer then? total time in the carboy would be about 1.5 wks.

 

[oxford brewer]

From what i have read from this site you should leave it a while longer(2 weeks at least...but from your style of brew,extra time would be ok).

 

[brewhead]

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the bottle
20 minutes in my kidneys

that's a good rule of thumb

 

[cweston]

Until its clear, which can be in a week or sometimes takes several weeks.

If the top is lighter than the bottom, that means it's still in the process of clearing. The line between lighter and darker will move down the carboy until it bottons out near the bottom.

Of course, a Hogaarden clone, being a wit, will never really clear.

 

[kaine]

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the bottle...

Would you apply that loosely to most brews, or specifically to this one? The reason I ask being a relative newbie, is that I've now used secondaries on the last few brews, mainly to reduce the amount of sediment in bottles, but only for perhaps a week, before conditioning for a further two. Would my patience be that well rewarded?

 

[Robbw]

With the ales and stouts I do, 1 week in the secondary is usually plenty.

 

[RichBrewer]

I've changed the way I do it and I think my beers are better for it. I only brew ales by the way.
I do the usual week or so in primary. Then, I rack to secondary and leave it at room temp for 4 days to a week. At that point, if I have room, I place the secondary in the fridge and cold condition it for about 2 weeks at about 38 degrees F. I then keg the beer in a corny.
I now get less chill haze and even that goes away after additional cold conditioning in the keg.
For those who can't cold condition I would say go at least 2 to 3 weeks in the secondary in the coolest place in your home.