secondary or bottle

[02stangguy]

Brewed a honey wheat 5 days ago and I'm pretty sure its done fermenting. Checked the gravity last night and it was 1.012. Going to check again tomorrow night and if it hasn't changed I will either put in secondary or bottle but which one? I couldn't care less about clarity but will putting it in the secondary help with taste at all?

 

[rhys333]

Brewed a honey wheat 5 days ago and I'm pretty sure its done fermenting. Checked the gravity last night and it was 1.012. Going to check again tomorrow night and if it hasn't changed I will either put in secondary or bottle but which one? I couldn't care less about clarity but will putting it in the secondary help with taste at all?

I would forget about secondary, but my advice is to leave it in primary for two weeks. You want to be absolutely sure its done fermenting to prevent overcarb/bombs and to let the yeast clean up off-flavors.

 

[kh54s10]

I would not bottle or secondary after 5 days. It may still go a little lower. I let all my beers go 2 weeks (check for FG) then if I am short on finished beer I will package, if not I wait another week. Sometimes longer, sometimes much longer..... depending on how lazy I get.

No need for a secondary. Wait for it to clear and make sure you are at FG then bottle it. IMO secondary will help a very small amount with clarity and not much if any with taste.

 

[lowtones84]

Definitely skip the secondary. Most people will tell you to wait at least two weeks, but I don't necessarily agree. It's not exactly bad practice, but when beer is done conditioning, most "clean up" time with ales will be done in around 2 days after fermentation is over. If the gravity hasn't budged by day 8-10, you're probably good to bottle. Waiting two weeks won't hurt anything either, though.

 

[daksin]

So, I agree that 2 weeks is likely longer than you need, but I do like to give my beers a couple days to clean up after fermentation ends. If your gravity is stable tomorrow, give it 2 more days and then bottle. Secondary not required.