Secondary fermtation temp

larkinnm1 · Jan 13, 2014

So my primary fernation is almost complete on a red ale and I am wondering about secondary fermentation temperature. I have held my primary at about 65 F. I would like to move it down to the basement which sits around 60ish. Would doing this hurt my batch? I figure most active conversion happens in primary so a temp drop shouldn't hurt. Also my beer a bit browner than I expected at this time. Will this change and clear up during secondary and get a more copper color? Thanks in advance

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sfgoat · Jan 13, 2014

It will be fine at a lower temp. Personally I wouldn't secondary at all unless you are going to add fruit or woodchips or something like that. I would go ahead and just put the primary vessel in your basement until it has hit about 3-4 weeks and just use your secondary vessel as an extra primary. In regards to the color, it could be lighter than what you see in the bucket as the color of the bucket and the extra volume of the liquid make it look darker. If it is still dark when you pull a sample in a clear container then it probably will not get any lighter than what it is at the end of fermentation. It will lighten slightly during fermentation vs what it looked like before you pitched the yeast.

larkinnm1 · Jan 13, 2014

Will my beer have the same clarity and crisp taste if I don't secondary ferment?

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AceVeres · Jan 13, 2014

Not to hijack (closest thread I could find without doing a resurrection) -- but how often y'all sample (taste, FG) during secondary? My first batch has been in secondary for a week. OG was 1.056, reading during racking was 1.012. Do you wait until its stable over a few samples (i.e. days) before moving to bottling?

kombat · Jan 13, 2014

larkinnm1 said:
Will my beer have the same clarity and crisp taste if I don't secondary ferment?

Yes. In fact, it will be clearer.

Racking the beer to a secondary vessel does not contribute to clarity. If anything, it hurts the clarity, because particles that were slowly sinking to the bottom are mixed back up into even distribution throughout the beer.

The crisp taste is a factor of your primary fermentation, and lagering protocol. But moving it to a secondary vessel does not affect that. All it does is increase your risk of oxidization and infection.

With an Irish Red Ale, I absolutely would not risk a secondary. It's doesn't add anything except risk.

kombat · Jan 13, 2014

AceVeres said:
Not to hijack (closest thread I could find without doing a resurrection) -- but how often y'all sample (taste, FG) during secondary?

#1, I don't do a secondary unless I'm dry hopping or adding fruit.

#2, I sample once after the wort has been chilled, to get my O.G. and taste the wort, then again after it's been fermenting for 3 weeks to get my F.G. and see what the final beer is going to taste like. I then just rack it into a keg and carbonate it.