Questions about my secondary fermentation

[thechemister]

Racking to a new container will leave a sizable head space, so is it reasonable to just fill that up with more honey water? I know it will essentially restart fermentation, but it should finish quickly compared to the primary and on paper should end up with the same ABV.

Do secondary fermentations generally have actual fermentation going on? I would imagine if you're not adding anything with more sugar in it, then your fermentation is done after the primary. That said, I know secondary fermentation is mostly just where you add in more flavors and let it sit to soak it all up. So why even call it secondary fermentation?

I ask because, I'm considering cold crashing and stopping fermentation completely right after the primary, because I used D-47 which will make it dry. So I'm hoping I can stop fermentation, add a little honey water and flavors and let it sit for a while, rack again, bottle and age. Or does this defeat the purpose of the secondary?

 

[fatbloke]

Racking to a new container will leave a sizable head space, so is it reasonable to just fill that up with more honey water? I know it will essentially restart fermentation, but it should finish quickly compared to the primary and on paper should end up with the same ABV.

It won't vary much if your topping up mix is the same SG as the main batch was started at. You can use honey water, cheap white wine is good too. You can use vodka or other spirits depending on what flavour you want, you can just use water. You can even just get hold of some compressed CO2 and flood the airspace with a CO2 gas blanket

Do secondary fermentations generally have actual fermentation going on? I would imagine if you're not adding anything with more sugar in it, then your fermentation is done after the primary. That said, I know secondary fermentation is mostly just where you add in more flavors and let it sit to soak it all up. So why even call it secondary fermentation?

Generally not. I suspect it's more of a historical thing now. Where they would have originally done some sort of proper secondary fermenting but now it's more about clearing, and adding any finishing type flavours/materials etc. Plus if it's just about clearing, it's much easier to rack off the gross lees in a carboy or bucket and then a glass carboy makes it easier to follow where the batch is at.

I ask because, I'm considering cold crashing and stopping fermentation completely right after the primary, because I used D-47 which will make it dry. So I'm hoping I can stop fermentation, add a little honey water and flavors and let it sit for a while, rack again, bottle and age. Or does this defeat the purpose of the secondary?

No, but stopping an active fermentation isn't quite as easy as it seems. Just cold crashing puts the yeast to sleep. Hopefully dropping a fair bit of it out too. Then you'd cold crash for a week or so, then while it's still cold, rack it onto sulphites/sorbate. That usually works but isn't guaranteed.

Its usually easiest to let a batch finish dry, then rack, stabilise and back sweeten.......

 

[Matrix4b]

In the secondary, Some fermentation does happen. I usually only see about 1-3% during the secondary. This is over the course of a few months. Now some would sat that this is just evaporation taking it's toll but I disagre. That and like fatbloke says, it's incrediblly hard to stop the yeasties.

When I rack to the secondary, It is mostly for adding the fruit or spices, then clearing, then stablizing with potasium sorbate and backsweetening, then finally fining and clearing with oaking.

I rack to the secondary when the primary slows way down and is almost non-perceptable. So some yeast are still working, they go to work on a bit of the fruit. I usually take gravity reading prior to putting in the fruit and afterward and then every week and I do see it drop even on the fruit.

Matrix