Secondary Ferment Question

[funkyskier]

I'm on my second brew. Its a Belgian Carmel Wit. It has been steadily fermenting for 7 days and still is releasing lots of CO2. I am going to let it keep going until things slow down. Gotta love high quality liquid yeast, it just keeps on working. When I rack to the secondary fermentation bucket, should I take a bit of the cake along with it? Or should I try to keep it as clear as possible? If I bring a bit of cake along for the ride, should I stir it up? or just let it settle out easy in the bottom of the bucket?

Thanks in advance

Mark

 

[duboman]

I'm on my second brew. Its a Belgian Carmel Wit. It has been steadily fermenting for 7 days and still is releasing lots of CO2. I am going to let it keep going until things slow down. Gotta love high quality liquid yeast, it just keeps on working. When I rack to the secondary fermentation bucket, should I take a bit of the cake along with it? Or should I try to keep it as clear as possible? If I bring a bit of cake along for the ride, should I stir it up? or just let it settle out easy in the bottom of the bucket?

Thanks in advance

Mark

There really is no reason to use a secondary vessel for this style of beer unless you plan on adding something to it. Regardless of what you do the beer should not be moved until you confirm it is done fermenting which means there is no reason that the yeast cake is part of the move at all because it is done doing its job.

 

[kwingert]

Agreed. Don't mess with a good thing by racking to an unnecessary secondary. Leave it until bottling.

 

[pjj2ba]

One of the purposes of a secondary is to allow bulk aging off of the yeast cake, so generally you want to leave as much of the yeast behind as possible (you don't need to be anal about it though). The yeast that are still floating around in suspension are the ones doing the work. The yeast that has settled out are not that metabolically active.

The reason a secondary is not required for this style is that wits are generally drunk at a fairly young age. 3 weeks from brew day to pouring it in your glass is not unreasonable. Now if you went a bit big with this and it has a high OG, then you might consider using a secondary. Or perhaps if you realize that your schedule will not permit you to bottle/keg it in a quick and timely manner and you prefer the flavor of beers aged off of the yeast cake (the yeast cake is not needed for aging, however it is OK to leave the beer on it if you want)

 

[funkyskier]

Cool, I will leave it were it is for another week or so. Thanks!