Secondary
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Avoid the extra handling and risk of contamination; The 'old wisdom' was based largley on osmotic pressure fracturing cell walls, but that's only a concern for major commercial brewers fermenting in vessels whose contents are measure by the ton. For the homebrewer, our vessels can't hold anywhere near enough mass for that to even be a remote concern. Unfortunately most brew-kit providers still suggest it in thier old instructions...you can ignore that part. Skip the secondary unless you have a truly compelling reason to want to get it off the trub. It'll be just fine.
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Put that carboy on Craigslist! Get yourself one or two good primary fermenters and forget about secondary fermentation. If you use a fermenter that has posts and holds pressure, you can transfer finished beer under pressure and avoid oxygen contamination. You can also ferment under pressure.
I just noticed you're saying you primary in a carboy. Do people do that? Way back when I got started, they told us to start in buckets and secondary in carboys.
Forget that thing. It's a pain to clean, it's easy to break, it's hard to move around...liberate yourself.
I just noticed you're saying you primary in a carboy. Do people do that? Way back when I got started, they told us to start in buckets and secondary in carboys.
Forget that thing. It's a pain to clean, it's easy to break, it's hard to move around...liberate yourself.
PET carboy > HDPE bucket for primary, IMO. Cleaning is a little harder, but O2 permeability and easier sanitation make it worth it to me.
I leave the beer in the fv until it's clear and I'm ready to bottle, sometimes up to 8 weeks depending on life and the type of beer. IMO, the beer left longer is better but I don't do hoppy beers.
Life has been great since I went to fermenting in kegs.
Yup. Only thing I ever used buckets for was bottling. Before I went stainless all of my brews were primaried in glass and then went to the bucket with a spigot for bottling. Awkward, heavy and cleaning the dried foam off just under the neck was a huge PITA!
Now I'm wondering if I got it backward. It was a long time ago.
I think it probably worked both ways! I knew plenty of people who had buckets or carboys. But my time in this hobby only goes back seven years or so.
I think a secondary can be appropriate if aging on oak or fruiting or souring, other than that, leave it.
My first kit had a bucket for primary, carboy for secondary. But at some point the properties of HDPE and the awful mechanics of the bucket lid drove me away. I think bucket primary was SOP in the stone ages (pre-2000).
Anyway, I had two carboys, and I gave both away.
When I got back into brewing at the beginning of '23, I got buckets and an All-Rounder. I abandoned the All-Rounder because of the longevity issue. I got a 6-gallon Torpedo Megamouth a couple of months later, and it has been wonderful.
When I got back into brewing at the beginning of '23, I got buckets and an All-Rounder. I abandoned the All-Rounder because of the longevity issue. I got a 6-gallon Torpedo Megamouth a couple of months later, and it has been wonderful.
worlddivides
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I started brewing in 2014 and there were still some folks saying you should secondary back then (pretty much everyone is anti-secondary now). I only ever did secondary for beers that needed a long time in fermenters before being bottled. This was most prominently represented by "traditional" sours with one that I aged for just under 1 year before bottling being the only beer I've done both a secondary and a tertiary. Other than sours, I did secondaries for some high ABV stuff along the lines of Russian Imperial Stouts and barleywines. It's been a LONG time since I last did a secondary, though. In general, they just aren't necessary.
I always secondary ,I tried leaving it in the fermenter a few times, and IMHO, it wasn't as clear and just wasnt as flavorfull,,I just feel it gives me a better product and frees up.my fermenters., its probably just in my head, but that's where itbluves,I haven't been doing this as long as many, so I dont know squat, it just works for me.it's become part of my process,and will continue to be until I feel there is no benefit. FWIW I bottle as well , I enjoy the process and ability to easily store and make gifts of my brew.
jerrylotto
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It depends entirely on your equipment and your process. Carboys and buckets make fermentation difficult without a secondary, especially if you're going to dry hop or fruit your beer. If you have a conical with the bottom drop, there is never a need for a secondary fermentation.
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When I got started (in 2011 I think) my homebrew store sold single stage bucket kits and two stage bucket primary and carboy secondary kits. I was too cheap for the two stage kit so I never went down that route, but for quite a while I thought that's what the good brewers do.
bobtheUKbrewer2
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ferment 5 to 8 days then bottle with miniscule priming sugar, start drinking it 10 days later..........
I started out fermenting in buckets and transferring to a glass carboy. That’s what the instructions said when I started long ago. A few years later a relative of mine dropped a glass carboy. Luckily he wasn’t hurt but what a mess. That scared me away from secondaries and I didn’t see any difference in the beer. Now I use a PET fermonster with a port and bottle directly from fv to sugar primed bottles. Beer is good and a lot less clean up and no broken glass.
I have brewed on and on for over 30 years, and have never done a secondary that I recall. I don’t knock those that do, especially if they have some reason for it (like dry hopping off the yeast), but I just see it as an unnecessary step that presents another opportunity for messing up or risking oxygen exposure. I have no plans to do a secondary fermentation either. I have begun fermenting in a kegmenter and am considering just serving out of it without a transfer to a serving keg. This would eliminate another step and should be no problem since it employs a floating dip tube.
The "kit" I bought for $20 off of Marketplace came with two 6+ gallon glass carboys. As my third batch is fermenting away in the one and only bucket, outside of a bottling bucket, that it's going to be in, I'm wondering why anyone would ever use them. They're heavy, they're awkward, they look like they'd break easily, why bother? I'm no expert, but if you can make something that tastes good in a single plastic bucket, why would you even bother opening that bucket up, pumping everything out into an easily breakable, ridiculously heavy and awkward vessel that's sort of a pain to clean and sanitize, when you can just leave it and skip that whole drama?
This is part of the reason I never got into brewing in the past. I had a community college professor that brewed and a bunch of us were at his house at the end of the semester sampling his brews. The way he described the process seemed like a gigantic pain in the butt, but this was 15 years ago. Going from a pot to a pot to a pot to a bucket to a carboy to a bucket to a bottle and then sitting forever. That is a bunch of junk to have sitting around if you decide to throw in the towel and sell wholesale your unused brewing equipment to some jack@ss on Marketplace for $20. I'll likely be trying to unload my glass carboys at some point in the future.
I don't recommend buckets, but for me, they worked fine without secondaries.
You can dry hop with two sous vide magnets and a hop bag. Don't ask me about fruit.
Don't forget that you have to leave carboys in the dark or cover them to avoid skunking your beer. Another annoyance.
I gave my carboys to a buddy that likes to make mead.
I gave my carboys to a buddy that likes to make mead.
Don’t get me wrong; I do have and use glass carboys, but only for wine. If I’m working from store bought juice, I usually just let it run until it’s done. If I’m working from actual fruit, it’s sometimes desirable to rack it off all the lees and let it clarify a bit before bottling or kegging. (Yes! I started kegging my wine for all the same reasons I went to kegging beer!).
I really enjoy watching the wine work. It has all the fascination of watching a lava lamp with the bonus of knowing that it’s producing something that will be good to drink!
I really enjoy watching the wine work. It has all the fascination of watching a lava lamp with the bonus of knowing that it’s producing something that will be good to drink!
No, you got it right.
The standard starter kit from many brew stores had a 6 or 7 gallon bucket for primary, and a 5 gallon glass carboy for secondary. I think their idea was headspace. Big bucket to allow room for krausen, then a 5 gallon secondary to hold a typical batch with much less headspace.
For those who have (or are considering getting) glass carboys, make sure you have a sturdy container to schlep them around. Like a plastic milk crate or wooden box. Still, the vulnerable point is cleaning them. A heavy glass carboy that's wet is sooo easy to lose a grip on.
For anyone with a morbid curiosity, we have a thread highlighting various accidents involving glass carboys. (Not for the squeamish.)
For anyone with a morbid curiosity, we have a thread highlighting various accidents involving glass carboys. (Not for the squeamish.)
So senility has not won the day after all.
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