Secondary too soon?

[NicKageB]

Hey guys! New to the forum and to brewing. My first batch was a... frankenbeer that turned out pretty good, in the secondary now I have a 2 <3'd clone.

This was my first time racking to a secondary and all I paid attention to was the taste (pretty good i guess) and the hydrometer reading which hit .018, right on the nose

However after I started reading some other posts brewers were talking about waiting til the krausen settles... Some was left behind in the primary but after a couple days resurfaced in the secondary.

It has now settled out, I assume this and the good taste mean it probably wasn't an infection? Would not waiting for it to settle effect the taste? I saw someone said that it may drag hop oils to the bottom when dry hopping? Thanks and cheers!

 

[bja]

Skip the secondary, completely unnecessary.

 

[bobeer]

yes, skip the secondary as there's no need for it unless you want to age the beer for quite a long time. Even then, I've left beer on the yeast cake for months at a time. However, if you insist on using it then check your gravity then check it again a couple days later. If it hasn't changed then it's finished fermenting and you can rack it over to your secondary.

 

[mmb]

Hey guys! New to the forum and to brewing. My first batch was a... frankenbeer that turned out pretty good, in the secondary now I have a 2 <3'd clone.

This was my first time racking to a secondary and all I paid attention to was the taste (pretty good i guess) and the hydrometer reading which hit .018, right on the nose

However after I started reading some other posts brewers were talking about waiting til the krausen settles... Some was left behind in the primary but after a couple days resurfaced in the secondary.

It has now settled out, I assume this and the good taste mean it probably wasn't an infection? Would not waiting for it to settle effect the taste? I saw someone said that it may drag hop oils to the bottom when dry hopping? Thanks and cheers!

1.018 sounds like you move it too soon. Racking the beer to secondary sounds like it stirred the yeast back up and I'd imagine your gravity will read a bit lower.

I like to move to secondary storage while dry hopping but I also use gelatin fining to drop particulate out of suspension and would rather not mess with all the yeast and trub while doing so. Secondary comes in handy for those instances.

Skip the secondary, completely unnecessary.

Not completely, just in this case.

yes, skip the secondary as there's no need for it unless you want to age the beer for quite a long time. Even then, I've left beer on the yeast cake for months at a time. However, if you insist on using it then check your gravity then check it again a couple days later. If it hasn't changed then it's finished fermenting and you can rack it over to your secondary.

I also like to raise temps a bit at the end of fermentation to encourage the yeast to clean up after themselves more and have an easier time processing the acetaldehyde and diacetyl. There won't be a noticeable change in gravity during clean up but it is still fairly important.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Like others have said you probably don't need to use a secondary at all for most beers. For most brews two weeks is completely adequate to finish and be ready for packaging. Some (including myself) sometimes like to use a secondary vessel as a bright tank. This step can be helpful but it isn't necessary.

But unlike some, I don't like to leave the beer on the yeast for more than a couple of weeks. (This is a matter of personal taste.) So if I am making a beer that needs a few weeks of conditioning after fermentation is completed I will almost always move it to a 5 gal. carboy after 10-14 days. The carboy is filled all the way into the neck to reduce surface area exposed to o2 (to mitigate oxidation). With proper temperatures the beer can remain there for conditioning or aging as long as you like.

Cheers and good luck!

 

[AlmostWitty]

Some (including myself) sometimes like to use a secondary vessel as a bright tank. This step can be helpful but it isn't necessary...

Count me in as "some". I know that secondary isn't *necessary* but sometimes I like to check on the process, sometimes I want to use the yeast that's in the bucket, and sometimes I just want to get it off of whatever hopsludge/proteins made it into the fermenter.

That said, I almost always transfer with a few gravity points to go so that there's enough CO2 produced to limit oxidization (which I've fortunately never encountered, even transferring 3/4 of my beers to secondary).

/threadjack

To answer your question: no, you didn't transfer too early, you probably pulled a little bit of yeast from the primary and it resuspended. I typically do that on purpose to make sure that it gets a chance to clean up the beer from any waste compounds that might be hanging around. Your beer should be awesome!

 

[NicKageB]

Thanks for the responses guys!

1.018 sounds like you move it too soon.

It was either 16 or 18 but whatever it was, was what the recipe said it should be, which is why I racked to the secondary. On the same note the reason I racked to a secondary at all is only because that's what the recipe said to do and at the time I had never heard of anyone dry hopping in the primary. I'm just doin what I'm told