Cc'ing In Primary

[jkeysers]

I searched for this and couldn't find anything relating directly to it.

I have a FWK Pilsner in the secondary at the moment, dry hopping with some Saaz pellets, and a high alcohol Coopers Cerveza (can of Cerveza, 1kg BE, 1kg Dex, topped to 20L) in the primary. Both have been in their respective fermenters for a week, so fermentation should be pretty much done.

I'm just about to start CC'ing the Pilsner. So they are still at least another week away from moving anywhere seeing as I only have the 2 fermenters. But I was considering racking them both off to my 2 kegs at the same time (coz i'm lazy and cant be stuffed doing it twice) in say a fortnight. So, can I CC the Cerveza where it is for 2 or 3 weeks?

I wasn't sure whether the yeast would start to eat itself. I thought that it wouldn't because at the CC temps, it becomes inactive and drops out, but wanted to be sure.

Has anyone done this? Does anyone do it all the time? I'm pretty new to racking as I only just got my secondary, but it is a tedious process as I do go through a lot of beer. If it's OK, I was considering just racking my better brews (FWKs etc) to the scondary, and CCing my not so great brews (K&Ks) in the primary.

What does everyone think?

 

[maltedhopalong]

Read the wiki on racking etc.

I'm pretty sure lots of guys leave it on the yeast cake for up to 6 weeks at FERMENTATION temps, so cc'ing at low temps (presuming u have an ale yeast) should be fine I would suspect.

Just wanted to give u an initial indication (and keep it in the latest threads list ), I'm sure there are more qualified ppl to answer your question.

 

[jkeysers]

Hey maltedhopalong, thanks for your quick response.

I know I can leave the wort in the primary for longer, I guess more what I was asking was whether or not CCing in the primary has the same sort of effect as it does in the secondary? Ie. Will the flavour become cleaner, and will the yeast drop out, thus clearing up the beer. I thought it might still be quite cloudy seeing as it's still sitting on all that slurry. These are the 2 main reasons I rack to a secondary, so if I can CC even at 50% efficiency in the primary, i'm prepared to sacrifice for the sake of laziness. As I said though, only for my K&Ks, i'll still rack the good stuff.

I really didn't word my original post very well. I guess I was more trying to ask "Should I?" rather than "Can I?". Does CCing work in the primary? I got there in the end! haha

 

[Adamt]

Should you? Well obviously if you had another suitable receptacle (look at getting a cube/jerry can or something) it would be better, but you _can_ CC in primary and it will have roughly the same effect, the yeast cake won't do much at CC temperatures, and extra flocculations will just sit on top of the cake. Just be very careful when racking not to knock the fermenter if you want a clearer beer.