Use a secondary, or longer primary?

I have an oatmeal stout that in a couple days I plan on racking to secondary for clarity and to age the thing a bit more and I started wondering...

Is it better to transfer a beer after a typical primary to a secondary for a week or two, or to leave the beer in the primary for an additional 1-2 weeks and not mess with secondary?

Thoughts!

i dont ever use secondary unless I am wanting to rack onto fruit.
Your stout will be just fine in primary. I recently left mine in primary for 30 days and it turned out super tasty.

Um, I think you asked the wrong question. It should have been, Should I leave this stout in the primary for 4 or 8 weeks? I'd vote for the 8 weeks.

Hmm very interesting. What about when I hear about added clarity from a secondary? Do you still get good clarity from an extended primary?

I always rack to secondary, get the beer off the yeast cake after 10 days, let it sit in secondary for a week. that way, I don't get all the yeasties in my bottling bucket.

beerandguitars said:

Hmm very interesting. What about when I hear about added clarity from a secondary? Do you still get good clarity from an extended primary?

Click to expand...

Yes you can still have clear beer. Although It depends on your primary vessel. If you use buckets then I would probably rack to a carboy after a month for further ageing. If your primary is a carboy then you could just leave it in. Some people believe extended ageing in buckets is not good as the beer could develop off flavors from the plastic. If you're going to age longer than a month, dry hop, or add adjuncts, I would rack to a secondary glass carboy; assuming you're using buckets.

beerandguitars said:

Hmm very interesting. What about when I hear about added clarity from a secondary? Do you still get good clarity from an extended primary?

Click to expand...

How do you judge the clarity of a stout?

I hardly ever use a secondary nowadays, just 3 - 4 weeks in primary. My beers are just as clear as they were when I used to use a secondary, but my Oxi-Clean lasts nearly twice as long.

I found out very shortly after starting brewing (1974) that leaving it in the primary before transferring to the secondary for 2 weeks instead of 1, made a very noticeable improvement to my brews, but I never considered skipping the secondary because I was taught that the secondary was necessary.

I cannot remember when it was suggested that a secondary was not necessary for most beers, but I tried it, and quickly found that 3 - 4 weeks in primary was as good as or better than 2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary.

I've done that ever since except when I really need to use a secondary. For me, this equates to when dry hopping (which if I did it in the primary) would cause me to run out of beer because I only have 2 primaries.

-a.

For me, this equates to when dry hopping (which if I did it in the primary) would cause me to run out of beer because I only have 2 primaries.

Click to expand...

With a price tag of about $16 for a bucket with lid you really have little excuse for running out of primaries and if you can taste the plastic from extended aging in the bucket I'd be real surprised.

ajf said:

I found out very shortly after starting brewing (1974) that leaving it in the primary before transferring to the secondary for 2 weeks instead of 1, made a very noticeable improvement to my brews, but I never considered skipping the secondary because I was taught that the secondary was necessary.

I cannot remember when it was suggested that a secondary was not necessary for most beers, but I tried it, and quickly found that 3 - 4 weeks in primary was as good as or better than 2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary.

I've done that ever since except when I really need to use a secondary. For me, this equates to when dry hopping (which if I did it in the primary) would cause me to run out of beer because I only have 2 primaries.

-a.

Click to expand...

When I first started brewing, I did the "1-2-3 method"- one in primary, two in secondary, three in the bottle.

After a while I just started leaving the beer in the primary for 2 weeks and then packaging.

I've never gone more than 3 weeks, at least not on purpose, but I began to notice some yeast character I didn't care for at 3+ weeks in the primary so I went back to 2 weeks, give or take, in the fermenter.

Gravity still does the job of clarifying the beer, and my opinion is that the beer will clear in either vessel. Moving it isn't magic- gravity works in the primary.

RM-MN said:

With a price tag of about $16 for a bucket with lid you really have little excuse for running out of primaries and if you can taste the plastic from extended aging in the bucket I'd be real surprised.

Click to expand...

But why waste $16 for a bucket (which does not support a thermowell and requires space for storage) when I can use a secondary for free without any adverse effects?

I'd also be surprised if I could taste the plastic.

-a.

In the beginning I was like Yooper with the 1-2-3 method, then I went to a 3 week primary only. Now I package after about 11-14 days of primary. Sometimes I cold crash for a day or two if I feel the beer needs more clearing.

Yooper said:

When I first started brewing, I did the "1-2-3 method"- one in primary, two in secondary, three in the bottle.

After a while I just started leaving the beer in the primary for 2 weeks and then packaging.

I've never gone more than 3 weeks, at least not on purpose, but I began to notice some yeast character I didn't care for at 3+ weeks in the primary so I went back to 2 weeks, give or take, in the fermenter.

Gravity still does the job of clarifying the beer, and my opinion is that the beer will clear in either vessel. Moving it isn't magic- gravity works in the primary.

Click to expand...

I wonder if this could be because you brew different beers than I do? I tend to brew English style beers that have a lot more yeast character than American styles.

I completely agree with your comments on gravity.

-a.

BigFloyd said:

It seems that this is one of those situations where the body of homebrew knowledge has grown and improved, but the written instructions they include in many of the batch kits remains based on the old, outdated info.

You certainly can skip the secondary yet produce some very clear beer (via Whirlfloc, using a chiller, whirl pooling, letting the sediment settle 15 min in the kettle, cold crashing and sometimes gelatin if kegging). It also helps to be very careful when moving the fermenter bucket before racking into keg or bottling bucket so as not to slosh the beer around and disturb the trub.

Click to expand...

I've considered using gelatin in the keg just to try it.

To be honest I don't really care if my beer isn't crystal clear. I've been fermenting with Conan a lot lately, and that stuff doesn't ever seem to clear even with whirlfloc, cold crashing, or extended cold conditioning. I feel like that murkiness probably actually contributes to the flavor characteristics that make that yeast so desirable.

I always let mine sit in the primary for two week min. the only time i rack to a secondary is when i want to dry hop a beer that i want to wash the yeast from, otherwise i dry hop right in the primary.

Glynn said:

I always let mine sit in the primary for two week min. the only time i rack to a secondary is when i want to dry hop a beer that i want to wash the yeast from, otherwise i dry hop right in the primary.

Click to expand...

I used to do that too. I don't wash yeast anymore, so I always dry hop in the primary now. I build overly large starters and split them so I can pitch half/save half instead of washing yeast these days...

Stauffbier said:

I used to do that too. I don't wash yeast anymore, so I always dry hop in the primary now. I build overly large starters and split them so I can pitch half/save half instead of washing yeast these days...

Click to expand...

do you just keep rebuilding the same starter over and over and spiting in half or do you do multiple splits. I like washing so far its nice having multiple strains in the fridge. It's nice always having american ale, northwest ale and ringwood at my disposal.

Stauffbier said:

I used to do that too. I don't wash yeast anymore, so I always dry hop in the primary now. I build overly large starters and split them so I can pitch half/save half instead of washing yeast these days...

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the nice thing about this hobby. We have choices. My preference is like this last batch brewed two weeks ago. Eleven days in the primary. Transfer to secondary with dry hops. Keg next week. A quick rinse of the yeast and I'll be brewing today with a slurry of really fresh yeast and no need for a starter.

for the most part, i usually do 2 weeks in secondary and 1 week in primary and then bottle--- mostly because i'm dry hopping for 7 days in secondary.

I'm in the middle of an experiment where I brewed basically the same exact brew as i did 2 months ago but i'm going to try and dry hop in primary and see if i can tell the difference.

Glynn said:

do you just keep rebuilding the same starter over and over and spiting in half or do you do multiple splits..

Click to expand...

I'll do both depending on time and my mood. I do also wash yeast sometimes, but not very often. Since I only do primary my yeast is pretty dirty a lot of times. On batches that don't get dry hopped and don't contain a lot of break material in the slurry I'll wash if I don't already have the strain in my fridge.

Well thanks to all for your input!