wheat beer to the secondary or not? please help

[javiceras]

Hi!
This weekend I made a wheat beer, and while putting the wort on the fermenter, quite a lot of break material and hops made their way to the fermenter!
I´m thinking in transferring to the secondary tomorrow, and let it stay for another two weeks.
I´ve read the trend is not to do a secondary, but in this case, is it a bad idea?
Also, with this batch I will try and wash some yeast to make another beer, so doing a secondary will help in cleaning and washing the yeas... Is it ok?

Thank you all!!

 

[DHUKILL]

I wouldn't worry about anything. All of that material will settle into the yeast cake. You don't want to transfer until fermentation is complete. When you wash the yeast you will be able to tell the hop/break from the yeast and separate most of that material at that time.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

A secondary is not necessary and if you just brewed it this weekend it is way too soon to secondary anyway. A secondary ( unless doing fruit additions) is simply a clearing or a bright tank. The beer should be done fermenting before being moved to secondary. As for washing the yeast, you should wash the yeast from the primary fermentor, rather than from the secondary.....leave it in the primary 2-3 weeks then rack to secondary if you want to...then wash your yeast out of the primary.

 

[AnOldUR]

You don't say what kind of wheat it is. I will sometimes dry hop my American Wheats, so I will secondary if I want to re-use the yeast. It's a matter of preference. Do you want to take extra steps washing your yeast or try to keep it cleaner in the first place? But if you're not doing any secondary additions there is little gained by a secondary for a wheat beer. If final gravity is reached, a week to ten days in your primary with a few days of cold crashing will settle out hops and break so that you can rack from above them. If your process was good up to this point (oxygen, pitch rate, temperature control . . . ) there's no point in a long primary. I like my wheat beers fresh.

 

[javiceras]

ok, thank you guys,
I´m not doing any additions to my wheat beer, so I´ll leave it a couple of weeks and rack as usual...