new to brewing

[donaldb]

I was given a brew kit with a 2nd fermenting glass jug, why would I need this and how would I?

 

[veritas524]

Simply put you don't. Leave your beer in the primary fermentor for 3-4 weeks and straight into the bottling bucket from there. If you do want to secondary, it's normally used for fruit, spice, etc... additions or for long term aging. If you want to rack to your secondary, you need a racking cane with some tubing to siphon, or pick up an auto-siphon to make life easier. Check out http://www.howtobrew.com for a lot of brewing information.

 

[donaldb]

I have two buckets, one for the start of the brew and one to bottle, the third is glass and I read to move the brew to that glass one with the wand after 5-7 days and then to the 2nd to bottle,but also I have read I dont need to move a light beer mix to the glass one. I am confussed here?

 

[JRapp]

Yes, Most agree that using a secondary fermenter is completely unnecessary and only increases risk of contamination.

Instead, just keep it in primary fermenter for 3-4 weeks, it will suffice. Dont worry, as you brew more and more you will get use out of that secondary fermenter, certain brews need to age longer, you want to add fruit and things and racking to secondary would free up your primary. Certainly as someone new to brewing though, just ignore the step completely.

As far as I can tell, most advise to ignore the time ranges and schedules of any beer kit once it goes into your fermenter.

 

[donaldb]

Thank You,,clears up alot of the conflicting advise,,first batch so see how it goes.

 

[RM-MN]

Your glass carboy is for the batches of mead and cider that you haven't planned to make ....yet.

 

[Euphist]

or so you can have two batches fermenting at once!

 

[MarkIafrate]

or so you can have two batches fermenting at once!

+1

Definitely true. I actually got a third just so I could do three at once. Fun to watch the fermentation through a glass carboy.

 

[matt2778]

I typically only use the secondary fermentor for really big ipa's with say 3 or more oz of dry hops and Belgian beers that I'm looking to bulk age. Otherwise racking to secondary is just a pita.