Impt to go to secondary? (my first Flanders)

[JeffOYB]

As I've posted here in other threads, I'm making my first Flanders Red (Sparrow, Roselaere combo yeast). I added raspberries a few weeks ago. They're now all white.

I've enjoyed the non-sour beers I've made in the past. I don't think I've ever racked to a secondary.

My question: Would racking to secondary be especially helpful with this beer? There's glop at the bottom and dead white berries at the top. This beer is now 7-8 months developing.

(Also, as I mentioned, it seems really thin and watery, lightly tart, no pellicle. It's been mostly 65F temps. I guess I'll be letting it sit longer before bottling. I plan to sample a bit every month or so to see if anything better starts happening. A couple weeks ago I added dregs of Monk's Cafe. The beer had sat for 6-7 mos before I added the berries. After adding the berries I got a small amount of bubbling for a couple weeks. Like, 1 bubble a minute.)

 

[porterpounder]

Usually the "wild" yeast and bacteria tend to clean up most of the off-flavor issues that usually occur from leaving beer on lees for a long time. Transferring now probably wouldn't do much for the beer aside from introducing oxygen, which you don't want. I jut took a lambic off of it's primary gunk after 2 years and it shows not signs of autolysis flavors. Transfered it onto fruit, but otherwise would have just bottled it.

 

[sweetcell]

i wouldn't transfer at this point.

i would, however, limit how often you sample unless you have a spigot or some other minimally intrusive way of pulling the sample. opening up a carboy or bucket is going to introduce a lot of air.

fruit should be added at the very end of the fermentation/aging process, i.e. once the (un-fruited) beer has completed its fermentation. the idea is to add fruit, have them ferment out, and then package right away and lock in the fruit flavor. aging on fruit for an extended period of time = fruit could start fading.