Primary and Secondary Fermentation

[BrewddhistDrunk]

Hey everyone, I just racked my first ever batch of brew into my primary fermenting bucket last night and so far everything is going great! The OG reading i took was right on target at 1.052 and the airlock began bubbling about 4 hours in.

My question is how long should I leave it in the primary before transferring to the secondary glass carboy, and thenhow long after that should i wait to bottle it? Its a belgian ipa with an expected FG of 1.011 and an ABV of 5.5-6.0. I will also be dry hopping an oz of chinook if that makes a difference in the timing. Thanks for the help and cheers!

 

[fatnoah]

You will find all kinds of opinions on this forum about the use of secondary fermenters. Some will say never use them, some will say only for dry hopping/adding fruit/adding wood chips, and some will say they use them all the time.

Personally I am in the never use camp unless adding something. I've never dry hopped, but I can tell you you'll want to wait to transfer until it is done or very close to being done fermenting (little to no airlock activity, krausen has fallen back in, steady gravity readings). Once you transfer my guess (based on some readings I've done) is you'll want to dry hop for about a week.

 

[daksin]

A secondary may not be needed- that practice is a bit of a holdover from times when high quality yeast wasn't so readily available. If you're going to dry hop with a LOT of hops, add fruit, or oak/other stuff it may be beneficial to move to a secondary vessel, but it's not required.

Generally, I just dry hop in my primary unless it's a ton of hops. You should wait for the beer to drop brite before dry hopping in primary or racking to secondary, though. Never transfer before you reach final gravity. You'll see the beer darken as yeast falls out of suspension. If you've treated your yeast nicely, this is usually done a few days after you reach FG. That's when it's best to dry hop, or package if there's nothing left to do.

Beer left on the yeast for a long time picks up a yeasty flavor which I don't care for- if you're fermenting cleanly (aerating, pitching the right # of cells, and controlling your ferm temp) the beer is best fresh anyway!

 

[BrewddhistDrunk]

Thanks for the input guys, I'm definitely still a n00b so any advice helps. I think I'm gonna leave her in the primary for a week and a half or two weeks and then rack to the secondary to dry hop for another week. Can't wait to see how it turns out and enjoy it while I start my next batch.