First Brew

[danrob92]

Hey everyone this weekend will be my first time brewing. I decided to brew a summer ale since it seems to be easy for beginners. I have a couple questions I'm hoping you guys can answer.

1) My kit only calls for single stage fermentation but I have the equipment to do a second. Will it hurt to do a secondary and how would I ago about doing so. How do I know when to move from primary to secondary and how long does it sit in the secondary before bottling.

2) Should I ferment my beer at the same temperature I will be conditioning my bottles? I was thinking I could ferment in my wine celler in my basement which stays around 65-70 degrees then condition the bottles upstairs where it stays around 70-75 degrees.

Hope someone can help me! Thanks!

 

[jpeebs]

For a simple brew, it's not necessary to move it into secondary. If you were to do it though, you would need to wait until you hit your final gravity before moving it. The only thing it will really do is clear it out a bit more, as far as I know. The way I've always done it, and I've only really ever done it if there's another step; dry hopping, aging on wood chips, etc. and even then you don't really HAVE to rack onto secondary. It can sit on there as long as you want it to. After you've hit final gravity, there's not a whole lot more it can do before bottle conditioning. And I've never had any issues bottling at the same temp as fermenting. I don't have a wine cellar though so everything gets done between 70 and 73 degrees. But I haven't had a bad batch yet. Hopefully that helps. I'm still newish but thought I'd lend my opinion.

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

Hey everyone this weekend will be my first time brewing. I decided to brew a summer ale since it seems to be easy for beginners. I have a couple questions I'm hoping you guys can answer.

1) My kit only calls for single stage fermentation but I have the equipment to do a second. Will it hurt to do a secondary and how would I ago about doing so. How do I know when to move from primary to secondary and how long does it sit in the secondary before bottling.

2) Should I ferment my beer at the same temperature I will be conditioning my bottles? I was thinking I could ferment in my wine celler in my basement which stays around 65-70 degrees then condition the bottles upstairs where it stays around 70-75 degrees.

Hope someone can help me! Thanks!

I'll offer my 2¢, but I'm sure some more will chime in...

1) No, it won't HURT anything to do a secondary, but why are you wanting too? What is it you're trying to accomplish? Generally, secondaries are used when adding something to the beer, such as dry hopping, etc. That being said, secondary can also help clear your beer. Unless you really just want to try out the new equipment, I would forgo the secondary. But, like I said, it won't HURT anything. If you're able to, you could rack to secondary and cold crash to really help clear it up. You would rack to secondary after fermentation is complete... i.e. steady SG reading for 3 days. Generally this would occur in 7-10 days. The process is pretty straightforward, sanitize your secondary vessel, and rack your beer into the secondary. You can let it set in secondary for (reasonably) as long as you'd like.

2) That sounds reasonable. 65-70 would be acceptable for an ale. And your bottle conditioning temps would be sufficient as well.

Good luck, hope all goes well on brew day! I'm sure I've forgotten something, and as I said, others will surely post as well. HBT is a great resource. Welcome to the obsession!!

 

[ShaineT]

There's loads of good threads on this forum (and others) about whether to secondary or not to secondary with an ale. The modern concensus seems to be no secondary for an ale unless adding fruit or dry hopping. Three to six weeks in primary including the cold crash will not have detrimental effect (assuming sanitary methods were good) and in fact this time in primary cleans up off flavors and clears the beer even while sitting on the trub/yeast cake. I stopped doing secondary with ales quite some time ago and I'm very happy with the easy process and results. Best of luck with your brewing!

 

[danrob92]

Thanks Guys!