I was wrong about secondary

[Dilligans]

Ok... I made a post a few weeks back called "why not Secondary?" Well you all convinced me to leave it in the primary... before I was primary for a week secondary for a week.. a lot of my beer would take a while to age in the keg... I thought that was normal... Well you all were right,, this last brew was sitting in primary for a week when I made my last post... Its been in for three weeks and actually is cleared up and taste good to go.. .I guess being ignorant does not pay off.. Thank you all for the advice.. I am at least keeping beers in primary for 3to4 weeks for now on instead of 1. no more green taste... YEAAAAAA

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Yeah, I used secondarys a lot when I first started and after hearing all the people on here that didn't I took the Pepsi challenge and never looked back. The only time I do secondary now is when I dry hop but even then I'll leave the beer in primary for 3 weeks before hand.

 

[HomebrewMTB]

Welcome to the club. Skipping secondary is not only is it easier but it also tastes better. :rockin:

 

[statseeker]

Except when you are long term aging (6 months to 1 year) or dry hopping I would never secondary.

 

[JJL]

Good to hear that the technique worked for you. The most important thing is that you tried it for yourself and determined that it was right for you. Always keep in mind that there is no one right answer in brewing. Always test it for yourself and make up your own mind.

 

[Golddiggie]

I dry hop in primary for a week with great results.

 

[ksbrain]

+1 I don't even secondary for dry hops. Besides, the timing would be all wrong. I usually add dry hops after 4 days. Who would recommend taking it out of primary that soon?

 

[tesilential]

+1 I don't even secondary for dry hops. Besides, the timing would be all wrong. I usually add dry hops after 4 days. Who would recommend taking it out of primary that soon?

You should wait until fermentation is over to dry hop. The co2 produced by the yeast takes some of the volatile hop aroma compounds out with it when it comes out of solution.

I dry hop at 2 weeks usually, for 1-2 weeks. The goal is to have the dry hops in the beer as close to drinking time as possible. I leave hops in my kegs throughout serving for extra goodness.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

I ferment in buckets still and am just not comfortable with dry hopping in the primary. I don't want all that extra O2 in there for a week or two with all that head space so I transfer to a 5 gallon carboy for dry hoppiing.

 

[Revvy]

I ferment in buckets still and am just not comfortable with dry hopping in the primary. I don't want all that extra O2 in there for a week or two with all that head space so I transfer to a 5 gallon carboy for dry hoppiing.

Why don't you push down on the bucket after you seal it back up to help void out some of the o2 that's in there from opening it.

Plus as others have mentioned on here repeatedly adding hops into the fermenter adds nucleation site, and often that helps release some of the co2 that is already in solution. Even giving the bucket a simple nudge is going to release some of the co2 trapped in the trub...get that bubbling up and you'll be voiding out the oxygen in there....Doing exactly what an airlock is meant to be doing, voiding excess gas.

 

[ksbrain]

You should wait until fermentation is over to dry hop. The co2 produced by the yeast takes some of the volatile hop aroma compounds out with it when it comes out of solution.

My fermentation is usually pretty much done in 4 days. Way slowed down at any rate. Maybe I could use less hops if I added them later and let them sit longer, but I like pushing a batch from kettle to keg in two weeks, especially for a dry hopped beer like an IPA.