Secondary Ferment and Bottling

[chaydaw]

Hey Guys-

Been scouring the forums the last couple of days waiting for my first kit to arrive. Very excited about it. I have come across a lot of people advocating the secondary fermentation method. I have a question about it. I am a bit confused as to what is different from using a secondary fermenter as opposed to just bottling after a week and half or so. Wouldn't they both achieve the same end result? Is bottling a "type" of secondary fermentation? Thanks very much for putting up with the question!

 

[copper]

Giving your brew time to drop more sediments from suspension and clarify will help keep that stuff from settling inside your bottle which is one reason why an extended primary or racking to secondary for conditioning is recommended. Depending on how long you store your beer, these sediments might give the yeasts something else to feed on and cause off flavors. With beers like Hefewiezen that are expected to be cloudy, it isn't really necessary to wait that long, but they are expected to be consumed 'young' and before off flavors have time to develop.

This chapter of "How To Brew" explains the secondary phase, which also touches on how the yeast can cause the off flavors by munching on trub.

You also want to make good and sure that the yeast is done processing the sugars before sticking them in a bottle, otherwise you might end up with bottle bombs. It's easier to do this with bulk aging outside of a capped bottle.

No doubt the pro's here will have other reasons as well.

 

[Revvy]

Actually very few folks on here are advocating the use of a secondary vesse, which is totally different from secondary fermentation. Most of us are advocating leaving beer in primary for a month, then bottling, skipping the secondary unless we are adding fruit, or oak....many are even dry hopping in primary.

Here's some reading for you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/second-ferm-racking-128440/#post1438252

And the discussion here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/multiple-questions-about-secondary-fermentation-140978/#post1601829

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

 

[copper]

I agree, and I'm not advocating for or against using a secondary vessel. Those are just the usual options.

 

[Revvy]

I agree, and I'm not advocating for or against using a secondary vessel. Those are just the usual options.

The "off flavors munching on the Trub" is no longer valid, Palmer changed his views on that in the subsequent editions of the book. Go read the first few posts in this thread to see.


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

 

[copper]

Reading as you're writing.
I haven't put my hands on a copy of the revised book yet, so thanks for that.

 

[tvtoms]

A 6.5 gallon primary fermenter is only like 15 bucks with airlock, so I'm going to go with another instead of a carboy. Based on my reading, today's yeasts are so much more predictable that it takes away the *need* for a secondary. Although they still have several good uses.

Heck, once you get the siphoning and bottling equipments, you could add a fermenter anytime you had the inclination while your others sat there fermenting.

This hobby seems like it'll be alright to me!

 

[chaydaw]

Thanks so much everyone for the information. The links to the other threads cleared everything up for me.