Primary to Secondary

[LILJONNYWV]

I am making a IPA and want to know how long you all typically leave it in the primary before you put it in the secondary?

 

[camus]

3 weeks, maybe four, only secondary if I am dry hopping and need some yeast.

 

[Boleslaus]

Me too. I don't secondary unless I'm using fruit. Typically leave it in the primary for 14-21+ days.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I usually don't secondary. If I do, then I leave my beer in the primary for ~ 3-4 weeks. Read this thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

to read about the pros/cons of using a 2ndary

 

[ElDuderino]

I think you will find that a lot of people aren't moving to secondary any more. It works just fine with most beers to primary for two to three weeks, the latter being safer until you are comfortable judging the progress of fermentation. This gives the beer plenty of time to ferment and then clean up any fermentation off flavors.

There are exceptions, like when you add fruit or plan to bulk age a beer for longer than three weeks. Eventually the yeast begins to break down and you get bad flavors (autolysis). But up to three or four weeks you are ok. It also minimizes the chance for infection in that you are not exposing your beer to possible infection.

I brew in carboys and just did an IPA and went against the above advice because I wanted to dry hop and getting hops out of a narrow carboy opening is a pain in the ass. So I transferred to a bucket and added my hops. I should have started out in a bucket, in which case I wouldn't have had to do the transfer, but I spaced it on brew day.

I did something else which I think worked pretty good and I will do again. Before, when dry hopping, I just threw in my whole hops. They would float on top for a while until they got saturated. This time I boiled and cooled a quart of declorinated water and then soaked my hops until they were saturated then poured the whole thing in with the beer. The hops had absorbed almost all of the water and they sunk down into the beer right away and started adding some intense aroma.

Good luck!

 

[LILJONNYWV]

What if I am adding oak or something like that?

 

[jdubb75]

What if I am adding oak or something like that?

I think that would fall into the "long term aging" category and the consensus seems to be rack it to a secondary.

 

[VTBrewer]

I just racked two brews from primary to kegs that have been in primary for 10 weeks. I couldn't afford a kegging system, i'm lazy, finally got here last friday, and both beers taste fantastic off my two taps in my man cave.