Size of secondary fermenter container? Does it matter?

[heckofagator]

I believe the primary fermentation vessel should be bigger than the volume of beer to allow for fermentation process. But what about when you move to secondary fermentation (if you choose to).

Would you want this container to be close to your beer volume to have less air trapped in the container? Or is a 7.5g bucket ok for the secondary fermentation of 5g of beer?

 

[ColoHox]

7.5gal for a 5 gal batch is less than ideal, but will still work fine. You are right though, in that you want to have as little headspace as possible in the container.

 

[peterj]

You should have as little head space in the secondary as possible. Whatever oxygen is in there will go towards oxidizing the beer, so you want to minimize it as much as you can. The easiest way to do this is to not use a secondary at all. Most beers don't need them unless you plan on bulk aging it for a few months.

 

[heckofagator]

Maybe I'm just a little anxious. I've not yet done my first batch, but plan to soon. I have a set coming with a primary fermenter and a bottling bucket. One of the recipe kits I'm getting seems to like to be fermented for 4 weeks, IIRC. So thinking ahead, I'm a little worried that I'm getting backed up with my primary fermenter in use this whole time.

Should I just get another vessel for primary fermentation and skip transferring anything to secondary? That way I can have 2 going at the same time? Is that what most people do?

 

[flars]

More primary fermentors is the best solution to brewing anxiety. I use four and still need to remember to count how many are full before I think about a new style of beer.

 

[heckofagator]

ha, ok, so I'm not the only one then. Well that was easy enough. Picking up another 6-7g bucket should be good then.

thanks

 

[peterj]

Yeah, I would go with another primary because the majority of beers don't need a secondary. I rarely use secondaries, but there are brewers who put everything in a secondary. It's just personal preference. But I see it as more work and another chance to oxidize or introduce infection with no benefit to the beer.

And 4 weeks sounds kind of long. It depends on the beer, but 2-3 weeks is usually plenty for an average ale. 4 weeks won't hurt anything, but it is longer than necessary for a primary in my opinion.

 

[Man-O-Leisure]

Yeah, I would go with another primary because the majority of beers don't need a secondary. I rarely use secondaries, but there are brewers who put everything in a secondary. It's just personal preference. But I see it as more work and another chance to oxidize or introduce infection with no benefit to the beer.

And 4 weeks sounds kind of long. It depends on the beer, but 2-3 weeks is usually plenty for an average ale. 4 weeks won't hurt anything, but it is longer than necessary for a primary in my opinion.

Im also still in planning stage for my first brew. I also dont totally understand the whole secondary ferment or not.. am i right in assuming, that after Primary priming it and bottling in and then storing in the bottles for whatever amount of time needed, is basically just doing the secondary in the bottle ?

 

[peterj]

Secondary fermentation is kind of a misnomer. There's not actually any fermentation going on. The reason secondaries were recommended so much was that people used to think that once the initial fermentation was done or pretty much done you needed to get the beer off of the bulk of the yeast cake because the yeast would start dying (referred to as autolysis) which would release off flavors. This practice was taken from commercial breweries who usually have enormous conical fermenters that put tons of pressure on the yeast cake in the bottom, but it's been found that autolysis simply doesn't happen very quickly at all on a homebrew scale.

Another reason people put beers in a secondary is that they say it helps to clear the beer. I believe, as do many other brewers, that the beer will clear just as well in the primary as the secondary. As long as you are careful about not picking up trub and yeast off the bottom while racking there isn't much difference between letting the beer clear in a primary or a secondary.

So I would say when you do a primary only you are basically doing the primary and secondary stages all in the primary. The beer clears and the yeast clean up any off flavors and the beer conditions in the primary. Then you prime, bottle, and allow the carbonation to form as usual.

 

[runkelia]

The 2 best things I've done to improve my beer are swiching to all grain, and stopped using a secondary fermentor.
Now I'm stuck with (2) 5 gallon carboys that I have little/no use for.
If I could do it again I would have bought only 6 1/2 gallon carboys.

 

[peterj]

The 2 best things I've done to improve my beer are swiching to all grain, and stopped using a secondary fermentor.
Now I'm stuck with (2) 5 gallon carboys that I have little/no use for.
If I could do it again I would have bought only 6 1/2 gallon carboys.

Sometimes I'll use my 5 gallon carboy for a primary when I do 3 gallon batches. Works well for that. But yeah, if you're doing 5 gallon batches then 6-6.5 gallon fermenters are better.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Maybe I'm just a little anxious. I've not yet done my first batch, but plan to soon. I have a set coming with a primary fermenter and a bottling bucket. One of the recipe kits I'm getting seems to like to be fermented for 4 weeks, IIRC. So thinking ahead, I'm a little worried that I'm getting backed up with my primary fermenter in use this whole time.

Should I just get another vessel for primary fermentation and skip transferring anything to secondary? That way I can have 2 going at the same time? Is that what most people do?

I have 5 buckets and 3 carboys. I use the carboys as secondaries for long term stuff and the buckets for everything else.

 

[Rich819]

I usually just hit it with some CO2 to force out the oxygen. I have always raked to secondary and never had any issues.