Secondary?

[hulkavitch]

I have heard that leaving a brew in primary for extended periods on the yeast patty can create off flavors? I have also read there is no reason to tranfer to secondary unless you are dry hopping or making other additions.

I have a kolsch in 4 days in primary no reason to transfer other than to free up my primary, clear up the brew, and get off the yeast patty.

My HBS say to transfer in 4-7 days. So my questions: Is it worth it? How long can you stay on the patty without off flavors (will it even create off flavors)? Does transfer help to clarify the beer?

 

[grimzella]

i never made a Kolsch.. but my ales stay on the yeast bed for 3-4 weeks. tastes grrrreeeat!

 

[bds3]

I'm by no means an expert like some of the folks on here, but you can leave your brew in primary for a number of weeks. I've left a few beers in primary for 3 weeks and they were great. More commonly I transfer to secondary for two reasons, both of which you mentioned. 1) before I had the number of fermenters I do now, I did it to free up space, and 2) I found that, for me, it creates clearer beer, which is why I've actually gone back to using a secondary (maybe I'm not as careful racking as others, and the beer doesn't taste any different at all, but I can't deny it's more clear with secondary).

Back to the original question: I don't think youre gonna need to worry about off flavors from your primary unless you leave it there for over a couple months.

EDIT: for slight grammatical changes

 

[duboman]

Unless you need to free up your primary to brew another batch there is no need to transfer and I would suggest you keep the beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks and then verify fermentation is complete and bottle/keg.

If you need to free up the primary be sure to take a reading each day for 2-3 days to verify fermentation has completed, then rack over. Of course if you can afford it, just go buy another bucket/carboy to have another primary, I know you will eventually

 

[RM-MN]

I have heard that leaving a brew in primary for extended periods on the yeast patty can create off flavors? I have also read there is no reason to tranfer to secondary unless you are dry hopping or making other additions.

it's true that leaving the brew on the yeast can give you off flavors. What isn't known is how long is too long. On of the brewers I converse with on a different forum said that on his system, 8 MONTHS wasn't too long. You do have to have good sanitation if you intend to repeat his trial but for most of us, we can feel pretty confident of getting good beer with 4 weeks or more in the primary fermenter.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Keep the beer on the yeast until you're ready to brew your next batch or 4 weeks. It should be fine to sit there hat long. Then when you make your next arch you can dump it on the same yeast and fermentation will go faster and smoother. I've done it for two stouts and I'm leaving my beer on there until my next Brew. THEN I'll move it to a secondary and use the same yeast to ferment.

 

[Calder]

Keep the beer on the yeast until you're ready to brew your next batch or 4 weeks. It should be fine to sit there hat long. Then when you make your next arch you can dump it on the same yeast and fermentation will go faster and smoother. I've done it for two stouts and I'm leaving my beer on there until my next Brew. THEN I'll move it to a secondary and use the same yeast to ferment.

yes, you can put your next beer on the cake, but that is not the best thing to do. If you 'dump' the beer on the cake, you already have all the yeast that is needed, so there will be little reproduction (new yeast formed). The result is:

1) You ferment using old stressed yeast, that will probably do the job, but could stall before being done

2) You lose alot of the yeast flavors since the precursors to producing alot of the flavors occur during the reproduction phase.

If you wish to reuse yeast (which is a very good idea) I would recommend only using a quarter of the cake to allow the yeast to reproduce.