Secondary & Dry hop techniques

[nickrjsmith]

I have decided to try a secondary ferment, just to see for myself the difference. I have only ever done full ferment in the primary.

I brewed an English Ale. OG 1045 - Using Nottingham ale yeast. It's my usual brew and the Nottingham always attenuates really quickly and completely in 4-5 days.

Questions:

1) My primary got to final gravity (1010ish) by the time I put it in the secondary. Does this matter? Did I let it go too far before racking?

2) I also dry hopped 20g of Goldings into the secondary when I racked. Is this too early? Should I have waited a week before dry hopping?

Thanks for any thoughts / experiences.

Nick

 

[Yooper]

The point of a "secondary" is actually what commercial breweries call a "bright tank"- a place to clear and condition a beer. Fermentation should be finished before racking to the bright tank. You can drop a couple more points but the fermentation should be about over. Sometimes racking it can stall fermentation so it's good if it's finished before you move it.

I only like my beer to sit on the dryhops a week to 10 days at most. So if I'm dryhopping, I simply add the dryhops one week before bottling or kegging.

 

[Danbreeze]

There is no wait time needed in the secondary before dry hopping. I usually rack my beer into the secondary that has hops in a bag sitting at the bottom and let sit for 5 days-2 weeks.

 

[nickrjsmith]

The point of a "secondary" is actually what commercial breweries call a "bright tank"- a place to clear and condition a beer. Fermentation should be finished before racking to the bright tank. You can drop a couple more points but the fermentation should be about over. Sometimes racking it can stall fermentation so it's good if it's finished before you move it.

So if my beer had got to 1010 I'd day that was finished. Some people say they always leave it 4 or 5 days, but I wanted to get it off the yeast quick as to truly see the difference between leaving it in the primary and getting it off the yeast cake as soon as fermentation was finished.

Nottingham doesn't impart a yeasty flavour like other yeasts so I'm seeing how 'clean' this beer will taste.

Too quick do you think?

 

[Yooper]

Too quick do you think?

Yes.

Even after the bulk of active fermentation is over, the yeast still are doing some work. One of the things they do after the fermentable sugars are gone is to go back and digest whatever they can find. They actually start digesting their own waste products/by-products at that point, like diacetyl. Racking early can stall or halt that process.

The good thing is that nottingham is quick and flocculates quickly, leaving clear beer behind. If the yeast cake was tightly packed down when you racked, that process was just about over anyway.

 

[nickrjsmith]

Cool. The cake was very packed. Gravity 1010 which it never seems to get below. I think it was all done.

How long do you think in the secondary before I rack it into the Keg?

I was thinking a week? Shold it be longer? Will much change in that time? I always use gelatine finings which clears really well so I'm not to worried about that, I just want to see if it tastes different?