Should I Transfer To Secondary After 3 Weeks In Primary?

[brewinginct]

Important to note, we're dealing with my first all-grain beer, and I'm open to any and all advice in order to make this beer turn out the best that it can be.

11/27 - Brew Day/Pitch Yeast
12/4-7 -Primary fermentation slowed down, time to transfer to secondary.

At that point I got sick with a rough cold and decided that I should stay away from my beer until I was better. (For future references, is that necessary? Can you infect that beer with a cold or even the flu?)

If everything had gone on track then this would have been the second week of secondary and I should be bottling on 12/18.

Here's the question. The beer has sat in primary for the entire three weeks. Assuming that it has hit its FG, would it be better to:
A)Transfer to secondary and bottle in two weeks
b)Skip secondary and bottle on 12/18

I've read a lot of conflicting opinions about the merits of secondary fermentation. I normally would transfer to secondary but will it make any difference this late into fermentation? I don't mind sacrificing time for an improved beer, even if the differences are marginal.

What do you think would be the best way would be to go from here? Thanks in advance for all the help

 

[TheCarnie]

As far as bottling goes, I always regret not using a secondary. The larger yeast clump in the bottle always has my friends questioning the brew.

 

[brettg20]

What type of beer is this? I always transfer to a secondary, even if it's only for a week or so. There are a lot of people that don't bother and will tell you that a secondary isn't necessary, but for me it is. When I dry hop, I always do that in the secondary. When I cold crash, I always do it in the secondary. Even for my stout I use a secondary and it's not dry hopped, although I do cold crash it for a couple of days or so.

The one possible bad thing that can happen is infection if you are not careful. I just can't see myself kegging (or bottling) a brew right out of the primary, but that is just my $0.02 and obviously it isn't needed to end up with great tasting beer.

 

[DubbinFive1Eight]

From my understanding, secondary is really only used for clearing the brew. In my experiences, it does help minimize sediment in the bottles, but either way, you should let the brew do its thing for atleast 4-5 weeks imo. Even if you see nothing from the airlock, the yeast army is still working out flavors and such.

And if you're careful during bottling not to stir up the contents of the fermenter, you shouldn't get too much sediment anyway.

Tell your friends to man/woman up lol

 

[dzlater]

If the gravity is stable and it looks as though the yeast has settled out, I say bottle it.
One thing I do is when I take a sample for a gravity reading, I let the sample sit for a few hours in the fridge and see if any yeast settles to the bottom.