Rack to secondary or straight to bottle?

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IPADave

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I'm a relative novice - six all grain brews under my belt. No disasters, yet. In my primary is an IPA brewed 17 days ago. 3 gallons in a 3 gallon carboy...so less than optimal head space. OG was 1.069, above my 1.065 target. Pitched a full tube of WLP 001. Observed fermentation activity was very vigorous for two weeks. Has now slowed down to a few bubbles per minute through the blow off tube.

My questions: 1. Should I now rack to a secondary or leave on trub? 2. If I leave on trub, bottle after three weeks or wait longer? 3. In any event, should I replace blow off tube with an airlock? I have previously done so after 3 or 4 days.
 
IPADave said:
My questions: 1. Should I now rack to a secondary or leave on trub? 2. If I leave on trub, bottle after three weeks or wait longer? 3. In any event, should I replace blow off tube with an airlock? I have previously done so after 3 or 4 days.
Click to expand...

Congrats on your all-grain success, seems like you're on the right track.

1. Classic primary vs. secondary question, it's a topic that's been discussed on this forum many, many times if you want additional info. I personally don't use a secondary although I'd consider using one if dry hopping or adding fruit, something like that. I'd ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish with the use of a secondary, and could that be accomplished without it? Many use a secondary to clear their beer, or because they're simply following some generic brewing instructions. I choose to cold crash my beer which has the same affect. Not using a secondary means there's less equipment to clean, less chance of infection, and less loss of beer during transferring. The decision is up to you though, either method is acceptable.
2. Three weeks is a good guideline. In general, bottle when the beer has reached a stable final gravity and you feel it's ready. I like to give the beer a few extra days on the yeast after terminal gravity to give the yeast time to clean things up. If your gravity sample is stable and the beer tastses good, it's ready.
3. I typically replace the blow off tube with an airlock because it's usually pretty gunked up after a few days of aggresive fermentation and I like having a clean airlock for the remainder of fermentation. I sanitize the airlock and spray everything with star san during the airlock transfer to be on the safe side.
 
Thanks. My only objective to rack to secondary is clarity. (Was not planning on dry hopping this brew, but its on my list to try.) clarity has not previously been a problem and I used whirfloc on this brew the last 15 minutes of boil. So, in light of the advice, I will leave on the trub for another week, verify gravity has stabilized, and bottle.
 
Pie_Man said:
Congrats on your all-grain success, seems like you're on the right track.

1. Classic primary vs. secondary question, it's a topic that's been discussed on this forum many, many times if you want additional info. I personally don't use a secondary although I'd consider using one if dry hopping or adding fruit, something like that. I'd ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish with the use of a secondary, and could that be accomplished without it? Many use a secondary to clear their beer, or because they're simply following some generic brewing instructions. I choose to cold crash my beer which has the same affect. Not using a secondary means there's less equipment to clean, less chance of infection, and less loss of beer during transferring. The decision is up to you though, either method is acceptable.
2. Three weeks is a good guideline. In general, bottle when the beer has reached a stable final gravity and you feel it's ready. I like to give the beer a few extra days on the yeast after terminal gravity to give the yeast time to clean things up. If your gravity sample is stable and the beer tastses good, it's ready.
3. I typically replace the blow off tube with an airlock because it's usually pretty gunked up after a few days of aggresive fermentation and I like having a clean airlock for the remainder of fermentation. I sanitize the airlock and spray everything with star san during the airlock transfer to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...

+1 on all points. I now dry hop in the primary as well, and cold crash everything instead of doing a secondary. The secondary is nice if you have no way of cold crashing - both result in little sediment ultimately ending up in bottles/kegs.

For an IPA, I would bottle sooner rather than later (as long as you verify you are at FG). Hoppiness fades relatively quickly, and if you are bottling, then get it in them ASAP after a minimum of 3 weeks fermentation (my general rule). IPAs are one you want to drink pretty young to bask in that hoppy goodness.
 
I replace blowoff with airlock after a few days, if fg is where you want it, no real reason to secondary, unless you really want to clear it more.
 

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