Secondary fermentation/bottling

[duv1972]

Sorry, but you may have all heard this a million times, but please have some patience with the newbie.

I am brewing a standard bitter from a kit and have just done a primary fermentation. I am now ready to go forward to the secondary. I am not sure how to proceed and would like advice on which way I should go after transferring to the secondary fermenter/bucket:

a) add the sugar to the fermenter (do I shake it up to mix?) then bottle after a week or so (would it be ready to drink?)
b) add the sugar to the fermenter and bottle immediately, leaving for a week or so before drinking
c) add sugar to bottles and bottle immediately, leaving a week or so before drinking
d) another option I have probably not thought of

Another question (too late to do on this batch):
On this batch, I have done the primary fermentation in a sealed bucket (without a tap) and am transferring to another bucket with a tap to ferment/decant. Is it an option to simply mix in the one with a tap and miss out transferring over altogether?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tCan]

Reported for wrong section...

Typically when people talk about "secondary fermentation" they are referring to the use of a second fermentation vessel in which to finish up the last bit of primary fermentation. There is in fact no such thing as secondary fermentation.

There are 2 main advantages to using a secondary vessel.

1. It frees your primary vessel allowing you start a new batch
2. It provides an additional opportunity to siphon/decant

Beyond this there is no real advantage. Use of secondary is not necessary and in some cases even detrimental to your beer (recipes which call for yeast to remain in suspension)

It sounds like your beer is still in the primary vessel.

Before you proceed, I would suggest checking your gravity to make sure it is at least approaching the final gravity your kit says you should be getting. If this is not the case, you need to allow fermentation to continue. Then you may transfer to secondary. Once in the secondary, allow fermentation to continue until you reach your final gravity.

Once your final gravity is reached, condition your beer with the conditioning sugar. Bottle immediately. I'd let your bottles sit for at least 3 weeks. If you try and drink them after 1 week, they may burst into a geyser of foamy beer. I've been unable to come up with a scientific reason as to why, but if you don't condition long enough, your beer has a good chance behaving like you just shook it. It's possible that there is some sort of physical reaction with the active yeast (like dropping a mentos into a coke) that ceases when they go dormant.

Once you've done your 3 weeks, they are ready to drink, though it doesn't hurt to leave them at room temperature.

Do NOT wait a week after adding your sugar to the beer before bottling. Unless you like flat beer.

 

[duv1972]

Greatly appreciated. Thanks - I'll make a start!