Second fermentation Experiment!

[finsfan]

I am very excited i thought about this yesterday! I am currently brewing my first ever batch of beer which is the mr b mexican cerveza. Tomorrow will be 14 days into fermentation (which has been on my mind lately!) so i thought i might try something for the last week. I filled my growler up about 2/3 of the way with the mexican cerveza and put a stopper and airlock on top. I will be bottling both LBK and growler on the same day and hopefully will be able to easily taste and see the results of leaving in primary fermentation compared to doing 2nd fermentation! i have been debated doing my 5 gallon batches in two step fermentation so this will be good to experiment with. I only have one 6.5 g fermenter but also have a 5 gallon better bottle to do 2nd ferm in. to speed up the down time between batches i have thought about doing primary for 1.5 weeks and then another 1.5 weeks in better bottle before carbing and conditioning.

 

[PorterGlenn]

Congrats on the first beer!!! the guy I sit next to at work just completed the same beer, he loved it!!!

As far as taste goes with the 2ndary and leaving it in the primary, I dont believe you will be able to taste the difference. Deffinetly sharpie on the caps or something so you know which is which when it comes time to test it.

I do use a secondary, mostly to get the beer off all the trub at the bottom of the primary. However I know several people, especially those who keg, dont both with the extra work to get it into a secondary since all the gunk at the bottom doesnt come out of the tap?

If you bottle, which you mentioned you are going to moving to a seconday is a good way to try and get less sludge in your bottles...

I do all my brewing on saturdays/sundays so there is no 1.5 weeks for me, its either 1 or 2 weeks. But 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 4 weeks in bottles, then I drink it

 

[ktblunden]

If you bottle, which you mentioned you are going to moving to a seconday is a good way to try and get less sludge in your bottles...

Racking carefully to your bottling bucket ensures no trub ends up in bottles. When you start your siphon, do it with the autosiphon or racking cane about midway down the fermenter and lower it slowly as the level drops. Stop your siphon before you start to suck up the trub. Also, cold crashing before racking gives you a nice tight yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[finsfan]

Thank you for the kind remarks, i did not get such a warm welcome with my idea at the mr b website from someone. I realize i should have filled the bottle completely but will now know this when it comes time to do my 5 gallon kits. I have a 5 gallon better bottle so the extra air space issue will not be a problem as it should be completely filled up. I am planning on marking the bottles somehow to see what the differences are. I just did not see any other time when i would use the growler with an airlock and i have the dang stopper so i figured id have a tiny experiment. thanks again for the responses!