Not all the beer made it to secondary, fiddle with it or leave it?

[Tim_the_Enchanter]

Working on my first batch, and transferred to my secondary. I was trying to not let the sediment get sucked up in the siphon, and ended probably about 3/4 of a gallon short in my carboy. In the instructions from my LHBS, they said something to the effect of "fill to about 1 inch below the top of the carboy, if you come up short, add sanitized water a couple days later to bring it up to the right level". Can anybody comment on that? Is that a good idea, or am I better off just accepting a smaller batch?

 

[ifishsum]

I'd leave it alone myself, if you top it back up with water it's just going to water down your beer.

 

[Joos]

Not exactly a pro here.But i wouldn't water it down.45 delicious beers is better than 50 sub par

 

[Joe_Stout]

Working on my first batch, and transferred to my secondary. I was trying to not let the sediment get sucked up in the siphon, and ended probably about 3/4 of a gallon short in my carboy. In the instructions from my LHBS, they said something to the effect of "fill to about 1 inch below the top of the carboy, if you come up short, add sanitized water a couple days later to bring it up to the right level". Can anybody comment on that? Is that a good idea, or am I better off just accepting a smaller batch?

I used to concern myself a lot with this when going to the secondary. What I found out is that my auto-siphon sits above the yeast cake in most cases and didn't really pick anything up. Besides that you are moving to a secondary and it will settle out anyway.

Just my opinion (And I am still green also.) but I wouldn't worry too much about picking up a little when moving to the secondary. When you go to the bottling bucket it's a different story.

 

[Beerthoven]

When I rack from the primary to secondary I'm pretty aggressive about getting out as much beer as I can. I don't stop syphoning until I'm getting nothing but yeast/trub. Anything that makes it to the secondary will settle out anyway...that is what the secondary is for, right?

I would not top off the secondary with water. That will simply dilute the beer. The only time I would ever top off would be before fermentation has begun.

 

[davesrose]

Another trick I've found about getting a little bit more beer out of the primary is to start tipping it when the beer is starting to come down. When I first put my siphon in, I try to ease it to the outer portion of the bottom. Then I slowly tilt the carboy to the direction of the siphon so that not much of the trub gets disturbed.

Whatever you do, don't water down beer!! Buy Bud Light if you want to do that:cross:

 

[Tim_the_Enchanter]

Good advice, I'm glad I asked. I was thinking the same thing...more water just means more watery beer (blech). I was wondering if the amount of air in the carboy would have any effect on the fermentation process though--doesn't sound like an issue.

 

[davesrose]

Well many will probably chime in about how you should take gravity readings before siphoning to secondary. Really, all the active fermentation is occuring in primary. Secondary fermentor is a misnomer, as during that stage, you're conditioning your beer. Letting it clear and letting the flavors meld some more. By this point, your beer has all the alcohol in it....so that layer of O2 in the carboy isn't going to do any harm.

 

[Brewme]

All good advise. You could also just leave your beer in the primary and skip the secondary all together. When I first started I always transfered to the secondary. Lately though, after hearing Jamil Z. (award winning homebrewer) does use a secondary, I stopped transfering. By leaving your beer in the primary longer, the yeast will help clean up off flavors in your beer. Give it a try...

 

[jayvee]

So I'm a new guy following a recipe that highly recommends secondary fermentation. It is time to transfer but I am hearing all of this talk on how secondary is not necessary and that yeast is a highly formidable organism and that leaving it in the primary is definitely the way to go. The one question left unanswered by this is how long do I leave it in the primary before bottling and what important things should I be keeping an eye on. Anyone who can post on this aspect of the situation would be highly appreciated.

 

[lumpher]

here's a hint. find the guy who suggests adding water to fermented beer, and make him drink the water while you drink the beer you didn't water down

 

[emjay]

So I'm a new guy following a recipe that highly recommends secondary fermentation. It is time to transfer but I am hearing all of this talk on how secondary is not necessary and that yeast is a highly formidable organism and that leaving it in the primary is definitely the way to go. The one question left unanswered by this is how long do I leave it in the primary before bottling and what important things should I be keeping an eye on. Anyone who can post on this aspect of the situation would be highly appreciated.

For a typical beer, I find that 4 weeks is ideal, and many agree. If you're really impatient, you can bottle after a MINIMUM of 3 weeks, but I strongly recommend at least 4 weeks, and when you consider the time you need to leave it in the bottles for, a week really isn't a huge difference. Just remember that it's a *LOT* easier to take a beer out of the fermentor too early than to leave it in "too long".