Is Secondary Fermentation Necessary/Recommended ??

[PBBREW95]

Hi guys,

I'm currently still using extract kits (Magrove Jack's IPA at the moment).

I'm wondering what peoples thoughts are on carrying out a secondary fermentation with these sort of kits? My gravity reading is almost at my FG, however I felt it might be useful to move the beer to a secondary FV for a period of time before bottling. If I was to do this, how long would be recommended for this phase?

Side note: Added some dry hops yesterday, would moving the beer to another vessel affect the dry-hopping process?

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Kits get us started discussion moves us foward.

This from 2013: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=15108.msg191642#msg191642 is worth a read.

This from 2010: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...jamil-zainasheff-weigh-in.176837/#post2047670 is also interesting.

 

[Jag75]

I'd stay away from secondary if I were you. You already have a task at hand by bottling an IPA , which are prone for oxidizing. Do yourself a favor and leave it be , then transfer to your bottle bucket for packaging.

 

[IslandLizard]

I'd stay away from secondary if I were you. You already have a task at hand by bottling an IPA , which are prone for oxidizing. Do yourself a favor and leave it be , then transfer to your bottle bucket for packaging.

I second this! ^
Secondaries are not needed.

There are very, very few exceptions, which are best left for those who know how and when to do it without oxidizing or infecting the beer.

Leave the beer where it is for a few more days to finish out and extract more hop flavor/aroma.
When it has reached FG and been steady, transfer carefully to your bottling bucket with priming solution (without whipping air into it) and bottle away.

In general: Prevent beer from having air contact after fermentation has started.
Keep the lid on until ready to bottle/keg.
There's no need to lift the lid on a bucket to take a gravity reading or add dry hops.

 

[Jim R]

This is a good reason to spend a little extra money to keg. The keg is a great secondary fermenter not to mention all the other advantages.

 

[PBBREW95]

Ok thanks for the info guys, looks like I'll be avoiding a secondary phase and move straight to bottling.

Having dry hopped 24 hours ago I'm planning on leaving it another 2-3 days before moving to bottling bucket. Would there be any benefit in leaving it even longer before bottling ?

This is a good reason to spend a little extra money to keg. The keg is a great secondary fermenter not to mention all the other advantages.

Will have to look into one. What are the other advantages of kegging?

 

[Jim R]

The biggest advantage is that you can clean and sanitize one container instead of a bunch of individual bottles. Then you can carbonate with the pressure from the CO2 tank instead of with priming. I transfer to my keg and pressurize it to 12 psi for a week as it is maturing to carbonize. I can also do a pressure transfer from my fermenter to the keg to minimize oxidation of the beer. Then, of course, there is just the cool factor of having tap beer at home. I doubt there are many home brewers that do this long term that don't eventually go to kegging.

The extra expense is buying the keg, the CO2 tank, the regulator and the hosing. The stuff will then last a lifetime. I use the same refrigerator that I would use with bottles.

 

[kevin58]

This is a good reason to spend a little extra money to keg. The keg is a great secondary fermenter not to mention all the other advantages.

Or perform you secondary tasks in the primary fermenter.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

we all know that patience is a virtue with brewing beer, that said, kegging also can allow you to have a quicker turn around time. with some beers, and i stress some, you can go from grain to glass in 10 days. with kegging you can force carb the beer and it can be ready 2 or 3 days after kegging.

 

[IslandLizard]

Ok thanks for the info guys, looks like I'll be avoiding a secondary phase and move straight to bottling.

Having dry hopped 24 hours ago I'm planning on leaving it another 2-3 days before moving to bottling bucket. Would there be any benefit in leaving it even longer before bottling ?

Good choice!
3 days on dry hops is plenty. We usually time dry hopping to be 3-5 days before packaging.

 

[KookyBrewsky]

From my homebrew beginnings not long ago I haven’t done secondary once... until I had a mishap and basically needed to use a spare carboy I had on hand.. That seems to be the only time I plan to use a secondary, mishaps.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... until I had a mishap and basically needed to use a spare carboy I had on hand..

Makes sense.

And a lot has changed with regard to transfer techniques "best practices" as well as bottling since the early 2010s.

There have been a number of topics here and over at /r/homebrewing on how to successfully bottle (smaller batch) NEIPAs.

OP is heading towards kegging, so I won't disturb this topic with those links.

 

[coonmanx]

I still do secondary and always will. Last year I left a batch in secondary for a few months and then primed it in the keg and had it for my birthday. Great batch of beer. Each to his own. I go with practices that give me the results I want. And I will gladly put my beer up against that of anyone else on any day.

 

[coonmanx]

If secondary is done properly one should not be too worried about oxidation. I transfer when there is still some CO2 coming off the beer, right after primary has crashed. That way any oxygen that might be in the small headspace in secondary will be dispensed out through the fermentation lock and will not be an issue.... Also this gives me a great opportunity to taste the beer.

 

[ncbrewer]

What are the other advantages of kegging?

Another advantage of kegging is that it eliminates the possibility of bottle bombs. They're rare, but they can happen.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I go with practices that give me the results I want.

Always good to hear how people brew, even if it is a "challenge" to conventional/forum wisdom.

Brew how you like; but most importantly, like what your bew!

 

[camonick]

Always good to hear how people brew, even if it is a "challenge" to conventional/forum wisdom.

Brew how you like; but most importantly, like what your bew!

I’m really old school and secondary almost every batch I brew. I don’t make IPAs however. I still use big, heavy, dangerous glass carboys too. When I rack to secondary, I fill the carboy completely full so there’s only about 1/4” gap between the top of the beer in the neck and the bottom of the stopper. I know it’s not common practice anymore, but I feel I get clearer beer into the keg when it’s time... to each their own. I have quite a few trades (here and others) under my belt, and unless the recipients are just being kind and not being honest with me, I’ve received very good feedback.
The fun thing about this hobby is the opportunity for experimentation.
Sláinte

 

[RPh_Guy]

There's no tangible benefit from transferring beer to a second fermenter, and there are several well-known disadvantages.

kegging also can allow you to have a quicker turn around time. with some beers, and i stress some, you can go from grain to glass in 10 days.

Make no mistake, bottling can be just as quick. My beers go from grain to glass in about a week including bottling.

Kegging is all well and good, but it's not the only viable path.

 

[jrgtr42]

The only times I do a secondary is if I'm doing extended bulk aging, like if I want it on wood or fruit for more than a couple weeks or if I'm doing a sour. The biggest reason that secondaries were recommended back when was something called autolysis, where the pressure of the fermented / fermenting beer would burst the cells of the yeast, creating a sort of umami flavor. In homebrew scales, that is not something to worry about; the information was scaling down brews that were hundreds or thousands of gallons. Huge batches in commercial breweries do need to worry about that, we homebrewers don't.

 

[coonmanx]

There's no tangible benefit from transferring beer to a second fermenter, and there are several well-known disadvantages.

I disagree 100%. Being able to taste the beer at that point is a big advantage. It's called "quality control" and is a brewer's first opportunity to get a feel for what they have brewed. I knew that my Old Peculiar Clone recipe was going to be a big hit after I tasted a pint while siphoning to secondary.

 

[coonmanx]

I’m really old school and secondary almost every batch I brew. I don’t make IPAs however. I still use big, heavy, dangerous glass carboys too. When I rack to secondary, I fill the carboy completely full so there’s only about 1/4” gap between the top of the beer in the neck and the bottom of the stopper. I know it’s not common practice anymore, but I feel I get clearer beer into the keg when it’s time... to each their own. I have quite a few trades (here and others) under my belt, and unless the recipients are just being kind and not being honest with me, I’ve received very good feedback.
The fun thing about this hobby is the opportunity for experimentation.
Sláinte

I agree 100%. I get clearer beer when doing secondary. I probably leave a couple of inches of headspace but the thinking is the same. When I used to bottle the beer there would be very little sediment in the bottles. And now that I prime my kegs it is the same thing but in a keg. I only get a very small amount of sediment in the keg.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Being able to taste the beer at that point is a big advantage.

You can taste the beer at literally any point in the process. That's not an advantage of transferring the beer to a second fermentation vessel before packaging.

I get clearer beer when doing secondary.

Clearer beer into the keg doesn't mean clearer beer out of the keg. Some of the clearest beers I've seen are from brewers that spund (transfer the beer to the serving keg before the end of fermentation). A floating dip tube does wonders.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

The biggest reason that secondaries were recommended back when was ...

HowToBrew.com (1999-ish) offers some additional insights into the discussion

And after all these years, that there still isn't a sticky on this topic?

 

[w8av]

Good choice!
3 days on dry hops is plenty. We usually time dry hopping to be 3-5 days before packaging.

I agree. 3-5 days is plenty (I never go more than five and usually only 4 at the most now since my wife is champing at the bit to get her Amarillo IPA as soon as possible)

 

[coonmanx]

You can taste the beer at literally any point in the process.

How is that? That makes no sense at all. I am waiting until primary crashes and then I go directly to secondary. That is usually at about the 3 day mark. In other words, I am getting a first taste when the beer has basically reached its FG. I'm not sure why I would even want to try to taste it before then as it has not finished. So I am tasting it at the very first opportunity.

Also I know that I will have about one extra glass of beer when I siphon to secondary. That is because my primary has a line on the outside made of duct tape so that when the wort goes into it I fill it to exactly that line every time. And when I siphon I get that extra glass for me to taste.

 

[coonmanx]

Clearer beer into the keg doesn't mean clearer beer out of the keg. Some of the clearest beers I've seen are from brewers that spund (transfer the beer to the serving keg before the end of fermentation). A floating dip tube does wonders.

My kegs come out wonderfully clear, even when I prime them with malt extract. Also when I used to bottle there would be only a tiny bit of yeast sediment on the bottom of the bottle. So I am perfectly happy with the results of my process....

 

[RPh_Guy]

How is that?

I walk over and drain some into a tasting glass through the spigot, and then I can check refraction or gravity to monitor fermentation progress.

Glad you're happy.

 

[Jim R]

How is that? That makes no sense at all.

One can draw off a sample from the primary fermenter anytime to taste it. For me, that is especially easy with the side valve on my primary fermenter. I don't need to waste my time transferring to a secondary fermenter just to get a taste.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

equipment used does play a roll. if your using a regular glass carboy vs plastic with a spigot or a conical. before i got my conical i used glass carboys and almost always did a secondary. never had oxidation and the beer was always clear. i am not saying this is right or wrong, its just what i did for 8years with great results.