Secondary Fermentation

[RamsRebottle]

Hello everyone,
I just wanted to know what exactly are the benefits of secondary fermentation? And what styles of beer would be benefited from it? I'm pretty new to home brewing with only 4 batches of experience, so I wanted to try some secondary fermentation for my next batch. Cheers!

 

[Bensiff]

Hello everyone,
I just wanted to know what exactly are the benefits of secondary fermentation? And what styles of beer would be benefited from it? I'm pretty new to home brewing with only 4 batches of experience, so I wanted to try some secondary fermentation for my next batch. Cheers!

That is a misnomer, there really isn't a secondary fermentation, it is more a conditioning phase as fermentation is not occurring in this phase. If you rack your beer to a secondary and you notice airlock activity you have a few things going on. First, is that you have disturbed the beer so dissolved CO2 is coming out of solution. Second, if it does legitimately kick off more fermentation than the issue is that you racked before you have hit terminal gravity and agitating the yeast back into suspension is resulting in renewed activity. However, making using a secondary for the benefit of rousing the yeast is bad practice, it means you are relying on a crutch to finish fermentation instead of pitching a healthy and proper amount of yeast with plenty of nutrients and oxygen.

Where conditioning beer becomes worthwhile is lagering as non-fermentative reactions occur long after fermentation is complete. This process allows the beer to mature for the better or worse.

 

[Kent88]

secondary is also the time when many brewers add any flavoring, if they want to. Fruits, orange peel, cocoa nibs, spices, etc. It can also help if you want to let beer clear and you don't want to leave it sit on the yeast cake, which can impart off flavors.

A long secondary is also helpful for super-high gravity beers. As Bensiff said, it can rouse yeast back into suspension, which can help keep big barelywines and other strong beers fermenting, which they might need as the environment in fermenting beer becomes tougher and tougher for the yeast to do their job in.

If you ever want to do a secondary, though, be careful not to introduce any more oxygen when racking.

 

[C-Rider]

For most of the ales you are going to brew there is NO advantage to using a secondary. Well if you only have 1 fermenting bucket you can move to a carboy to free the bucket. If you are adding something like fruit then rack and secondary w/the fruit.

Your beer will finish and clear in the primary w/out any movement. Just relax and start planning your next brew.

 

[Brew_Dude41]

Is temp control important during a secondary fermentation or conditioning period? I have an imperial stout (OG 1.095) that i am going to move to a secondary in a few weeks and plan on giving it a good 5 months or so to age before bottling.
The floor in the basement is normally in the low 60's, is that too cool?

 

[Bensiff]

Is temp control important during a secondary fermentation or conditioning period? I have an imperial stout (OG 1.095) that i am going to move to a secondary in a few weeks and plan on giving it a good 5 months or so to age before bottling.
The floor in the basement is normally in the low 60's, is that too cool?

No need to let it condition in a fermenter. Bottle it up and set it aside if it has hit terminal gravity. Temp control over the short term is only critical during the early part of fermentation. After around 3-4 days it won't hurt anything if the temp rises. As far as long term conditioning, warmer temps mean that reactions happen faster so cooler, is better. Low 60s is fine. 50s even better.