I've been brewing for a while now, and I have always used a plastic pail for primary fermentation, and glass carboys for secondary. Lately I've noticed that as I drive around the net, many brewers go straight to glass, and don't rack to secondary. What's the prevailing opinion?
Pails vs Carboys and 1 vs 2 stage
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Forget the carboy, forget secondary unless you have a very good reason for it like long term aging. Buckets are common because they are cheap, safer than carboys, and they work well. if you decide you want to try Low Dissolved Oxygen (LODO) go straight to stainless.
I was a stickler on secondary because that's the way I was taught. After hanging around here and seeing how many went away from secondaries I decided to give it a try . Low and behold everything was fine. So i joined the boat . The only time I've done them lately is racking over fruit .
Soulshine2
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I'm slowly getting away from glass for both weight and safety . I bought a Fermonster with the spigot and I really like it. I generally dont do secondaries. Only time I use a bucket is for bottling. FWIW
Soulshine2
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same
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I was mentored by a diehard Secondariast. Never had sediment in his kegs because of it, he said.
I moved away from secondaries after just a couple batches.
I moved away from secondaries after just a couple batches.
I use 3 different FV . I use plastic carboys , fast fermenter and Spike cf5. The FF and cf5 I dump trub 7 days in . The carboy I leave until I keg I can honestly say I see no difference in my beer . I've done lagers in my carboy and the beer is crystal clear .
There are very few good reasons to use a secondary stage these days. Even John Palmer who championed the use of a secondary in the first edition of his book, How To Brew, has now said it is unnecessary in the newest edition of that book. Most of what we thought we knew about homebrewing 10+ years ago have proven to be less true than we were told. Yet those old books are still around and people keep passing along that outdated information. Your beer can sit on top of the yeast cake for far longer than we thought... you can add fruit in the primary fermenter... you can also dry hop in the primary fermenter... you can make clear beer without using a secondary... and there is a risk of oxidizing your beer or introducing unwanted micro organisms when transferring to a secondary vessel. That risk alone has steered me and many others away from using the second vessel... glass or otherwise.
While long term aging may be the only good reason for it that I can think of consider that you can accomplish the same conditioning in your keg or bottles. So even when I want to age a big barleywine or RIS for 6 months to a year, I skip the secondary and go right to packaging.
While long term aging may be the only good reason for it that I can think of consider that you can accomplish the same conditioning in your keg or bottles. So even when I want to age a big barleywine or RIS for 6 months to a year, I skip the secondary and go right to packaging.
Glass is too dangerous, and secondary is unnecessary in most cases and a bigger risk than reward in most cases. I would like Stainless Steel fermenters but they are way out of my price range, especially when I go on a brewing binge. I have had a couple times where I had 4 beers and 3 wines all fermenting at the same time.
I prefer PET better bottles but also use buckets.
I prefer PET better bottles but also use buckets.
Black Island Brewer
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January will make 24 years I've fermented exclusively in glass, and have skipped secondaries (on most beers) for most of that time.
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Buckets are 10x easier to clean and light proof for the most part. I've added spigots about 2in up from bottom, a benefit of plastic, so I don't need to "rack" per say. I only secondary with post fermentation additions but I ALWAYS cold crash prior to bottling, kegging, or transferring.
+1 for no 2ndry on most beers. Depending on what's in use, I ferment in plastic buckets, Anvil SS BrewBucket, or a 7g Blich conical. I've made great beers and marginal beers in all three. I have found little correlation between fermenter material and final product. The brew bucket is my fav due to being very light weight, it's a budget friendly stainless option, and having a rotating dip tube for clearer racking directly into the liquid keg post. Regardless of the fermenter, I usually keg beers once they hit FG (6-9 days) with a quart of saved wort from the boil or dissolved DME (4oz in 6-8oz boiling water) and let 'science' do the carbonating over 4-5 days (think batch bottle conditioning) with the keg sitting at a few degrees warmer than it fermented. Cold crash. Drink. Easy.
plastic bucket. I have glass carboys but hate cleaning them. And I really, really like a spigot and large opening at the top for cleanout. I'm still using my bucket from 1994. love it and it will love you back.
only did secondary a couple times...long ago...seemed like a lot of work for no/little benefit and the loss of beer in the process so I quit. Didn't know anything about oxygen at the time. I was more worries about something getting into the beer or contamination during the secondary transfer.
only did secondary a couple times...long ago...seemed like a lot of work for no/little benefit and the loss of beer in the process so I quit. Didn't know anything about oxygen at the time. I was more worries about something getting into the beer or contamination during the secondary transfer.
