secondary fermentation

[tsacquitne]

I have never done secondary fermentation. I currently have a Belgian Wit in the primary and I am thinking about splitting the batch and putting 1/2 in a brew bucket and attempt to secondary ferment it. The other half I will bottle and enjoy. My questions are as follows:

Has anyone ever done this before (splitting a batch)?

Should I expect a difference in the batch that was put through the secondary fermenter? If so what differences should I expect?

How long should I leave it in the secondary fermenter?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Barnzy02]

secondary 'fermentation' is really kind of a misnomer. As there usually isn't any more fermentation occurring when it is moved to another vessel.

a secondary is more for extended conditioning of a beer and removing it from the yeast cake.

A secondary is only 'necessary' in situations where you might be dry hopping or adding extra fermentables or fruit to a beer, after the main fermentation has completed.

Also, a belgian wit should be drunk young, there is not really much benefit in any 'extra' aging. I would say if the beer is carbonated you should drink it.

 

[duboman]

I agree, you will probably not notice any difference in either batch as you are really not adding anything to the secondary to change the beer. You may possibly notice that the secondary batch would be clearer as you would be allowing more time for things to settle out but you could achieve the same goal by just leaving the beer in the primary for a longer time.

 

[Homercidal]

First, as has been stated, the secondary phase is really a clearing stage.

Second, since a wit is supposed to be cloudy, it would be one of the last beers I'd ever do a secondary for.

Finally, it could still be an interesting experiment. I'd be curious to know what you discover from it.