Secondary fermentation - Coopers/Morgan’s

[Cshep87]

I regularly make canned homebrew kits from coopers and Morgan’s, mainly just light beers. I usually leave in a primary for 7-14 days then batch prime and bottle then sit for a month.
I’m wondering if it will improve the taste of my beer if I rack to a secondary, after primary fermentation is complete, and leave for another 3-4 days to allow more sediment to settle out then go ahead with bottling?
Will this improve taste/eliminate “twang”?
Will this allow me to drink my brew from the bottle?
Will it hurt my priming by eliminating more sediment?

Thanks

 

[NathanDH]

Personally, I don't really secondary many beers. It is possible that you may improve settling/clearing by going to secondary, but I feel there are much better options available. I think there is more of your process to look through first. In my opinion, secondary will do less for clarification and more for risking oxidation/infection in your situation.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by "twang", could you use some more flavor specific identifiers?

2. It is possible that more "clearing" will allow you to drink out the bottle. My only argument is that secondary is not required for clearing.

3. Eliminating sediment will not affect your priming.

I would suggest a few things. First would be, do you have any form of temperature control for fermentation? If so, I would suggest continuing your primary only, then cold-crashing to improve clarification. If not, then I highly suggest getting a way to control fermenation temps before considering secondary fermenation. Next, use care when racking into your bottling bucket, avoid collecting trub in the siphon. Some tips involve placing your fermenter in an elevated position and place a towel/bulky item under the side facing you. Let everything settle (use care when transporting it, to avoid stirring up the contents). Then this tilt will allow you to use your racking cane more effectively.
Other things you can try are Whirfloc/Irish Moss/Gelatin. All the techniques for using those tools can be found on the forum.

I hope this helps.

 

[Cshep87]

Personally, I don't really secondary many beers. It is possible that you may improve settling/clearing by going to secondary, but I feel there are much better options available. I think there is more of your process to look through first. In my opinion, secondary will do less for clarification and more for risking oxidation/infection in your situation.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by "twang", could you use some more flavor specific identifiers?

2. It is possible that more "clearing" will allow you to drink out the bottle. My only argument is that secondary is not required for clearing.

3. Eliminating sediment will not affect your priming.

I would suggest a few things. First would be, do you have any form of temperature control for fermentation? If so, I would suggest continuing your primary only, then cold-crashing to improve clarification. If not, then I highly suggest getting a way to control fermenation temps before considering secondary fermenation. Next, use care when racking into your bottling bucket, avoid collecting trub in the siphon. Some tips involve placing your fermenter in an elevated position and place a towel/bulky item under the side facing you. Let everything settle (use care when transporting it, to avoid stirring up the contents). Then this tilt will allow you to use your racking cane more effectively.
Other things you can try are Whirfloc/Irish Moss/Gelatin. All the techniques for using those tools can be found on the forum.

I hope this helps.

1.) The “twang” I’m referring to is the yeasty/5-6% beer taste that comes along with a Homebrewed 3-4% light beer. Many people who brew heavier beers do not mind this but I’m attempting to create a light beer with little after taste

2.) I don’t syphon off the sediment to my bottling bucket and I often allow my beer to sit in the primary for 2 weeks or more but after bottling. I still get sediment settling out in the bottom of each bottle after bottling, is there a way to eliminate this?
My beer is clear the way I brew now I’m just looking to eliminate the sediment in each bottle so I don’t have to poor each beer to a glass

3.) Can you use Irish moss on a regular canned beer kit such as coopers?

 

[Cshep87]

Personally, I don't really secondary many beers. It is possible that you may improve settling/clearing by going to secondary, but I feel there are much better options available. I think there is more of your process to look through first. In my opinion, secondary will do less for clarification and more for risking oxidation/infection in your situation.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by "twang", could you use some more flavor specific identifiers?

2. It is possible that more "clearing" will allow you to drink out the bottle. My only argument is that secondary is not required for clearing.

3. Eliminating sediment will not affect your priming.

I would suggest a few things. First would be, do you have any form of temperature control for fermentation? If so, I would suggest continuing your primary only, then cold-crashing to improve clarification. If not, then I highly suggest getting a way to control fermenation temps before considering secondary fermenation. Next, use care when racking into your bottling bucket, avoid collecting trub in the siphon. Some tips involve placing your fermenter in an elevated position and place a towel/bulky item under the side facing you. Let everything settle (use care when transporting it, to avoid stirring up the contents). Then this tilt will allow you to use your racking cane more effectively.
Other things you can try are Whirfloc/Irish Moss/Gelatin. All the techniques for using those tools can be found on the forum.

I hope this helps.

1.) The “twang” I’m referring to is the yeasty/5-6% beer taste that comes along with a Homebrewed 3-4% light beer. Many people who brew heavier beers do not mind this but I’m attempting to create a light beer with little after taste

2.) I don’t syphon off the sediment to my bottling bucket and I often allow my beer to sit in the primary for 2 weeks or more but after bottling. I still get sediment settling out in the bottom of each bottle after bottling, is there a way to eliminate this?
My beer is clear the way I brew now I’m just looking to eliminate the sediment in each bottle so I don’t have to poor each beer to a glass

3.) Can you use Irish moss on a regular canned beer kit such as coopers? Or Can I filter it with a wine filter?

 

[NathanDH]

1. Ok. I think the twang yeasty/high alcohol taste you are referring to, is probably coming from a lack of fermentation temperature control.
Do you monitor and control your fermentation temperatures?
2. You said your beers are clear, but if you are getting a significant amount of sediment, either they could benefit from a cold crash/filtering, or you are still picking up some sediment from racking and it isn't obvious in the clarity.

3. Yes you can use any of those clarifying agents.

 

[TheHopfather]

Twang could be as simple as the taste of extract. It could also be from a bunch of other things, fermentation temp control is a good suggestion to look at.

If you are priming and bottling conditioning you are going to have some sediment on the bottom of your bottles. The only way to eliminate sediment completely would be to bottle from a keg using a beer gun or counter pressure bottle filler. When you bottle prime you'll end up with some yeast on the bottom of your bottles, there is not getting away from that.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

when you transfer your beer to the bottling bucket, use clear gelatin.
heat water to near boiling, add priming sugar and gelatin, use the full packet.
add this to your bottling bucket and rack the beer onto it.

after the beer carbonates, the yeast will settle out, the additional gelatin will help the yeast compact and "stick" to the bottom of the bottle, be careful and you should be able to drink most of the beer from the bottle, it helps a lot, but just the nature of bottle conditioned beer, there is going to be sediment.

the most likely culprit for the "twang" is lack of temperature control and the LME in the can

 

[Cshep87]

1. Ok. I think the twang yeasty/high alcohol taste you are referring to, is probably coming from a lack of fermentation temperature control.
Do you monitor and control your fermentation temperatures?
2. You said your beers are clear, but if you are getting a significant amount of sediment, either they could benefit from a cold crash/filtering, or you are still picking up some sediment from racking and it isn't obvious in the clarity.

3. Yes you can use any of those clarifying agents.

1. I keep my primary at a constant temp of 22C while priming. I don’t use a belt or anything but it doesn’t change.

3. Can I use a wine filter? I thought I read somewhere that if I use a wine filter it will remove the left over yeast and my bottles would not prime ?

 

[NathanDH]

I gotta say I haven't bottled beer in quite some time.

Filtering may be an issue, I guess my thoughts are that with clarifying agents and cold crashing, you may have some sediment, but I doubt it will hurt overall.

If your primary is at 22C, I am going to guess that is probably far too warm. That is about 72F, which could mean the beer itself is at up to 82F! This is too warm for a light ale in my opinion.

 

[Cshep87]

I gotta say I haven't bottled beer in quite some time.

Filtering may be an issue, I guess my thoughts are that with clarifying agents and cold crashing, you may have some sediment, but I doubt it will hurt overall.

If your primary is at 22C, I am going to guess that is probably far too warm. That is about 72F, which could mean the beer itself is at up to 82F! This is too warm for a light ale in my opinion.

What temp do you recommend? The coopers kit said 20-25C on the instructions

 

[NathanDH]

What temp do you recommend? The coopers kit said 20-25C on the instructions

It really depends on the yeast strain. For instance Safale S-05 recommends 59F-75F, which is the temp of the beer, and active yeast can raise the temp of the beer by 5-10 degree F.

For a cleaner taste, I would recommend the lower end. So 20C is 68F, which would be the actual beer temp.
Just a suggestion like I said. My experience was, that when I started getting tighter control of my fermentation temperatures, my quality improved greatly.

 

[Cshep87]

It really depends on the yeast strain. For instance Safale S-05 recommends 59F-75F, which is the temp of the beer, and active yeast can raise the temp of the beer by 5-10 degree F.



For a cleaner taste, I would recommend the lower end. So 20C is 68F, which would be the actual beer temp.

Just a suggestion like I said. My experience was, that when I started getting tighter control of my fermentation temperatures, my quality improved greatly.

I just go by the stick on crystal thermometer that is on the side of my primary.

 

[Sansnom]

Will this improve taste/eliminate “twang”?

You're probably tasting extract twang. I've found that prehopped is LME particularly bad for this.

Personally, I've never been able to get rid of it when using those kits. You can reduce it by having good temperature control and such, but it certainly won't eliminate it, at least in my experience. These kits tend to make better dark beers than light beers. Are you making it with a kg of dextrose? You could try cutting it back to 500g and replacing the rest with dry malt extract, I found that it improves the flavour, but it does darken it.

 

[Cshep87]

You're probably tasting extract twang. I've found that prehopped is LME particularly bad for this.



Personally, I've never been able to get rid of it when using those kits. You can reduce it by having good temperature control and such, but it certainly won't eliminate it, at least in my experience. These kits tend to make better dark beers than light beers. Are you making it with a kg of dextrose? You could try cutting it back to 500g and replacing the rest with dry malt extract, I found that it improves the flavour, but it does darken it.

Yes I use 1kg of dextrose. My thoughts were it’s a result of using the LME cans. Maybe it’s time I up my game and attempt a lager