Irish stout in secondary

[brewtopbeer]

Hey guys I have read everything on the Internet and different forums including this one, lastnight I racked my Irish stout into my secondary because Ive heard it's better to age your stout 7-10 days in primary and 1-2 weeks in secondary then bottle what are your thoughts? No dry hopping involved in my secondary just been told ageing your stout is best.

 

[panzerd18]

I would just leave it the whole time in the primary. Saves a lot of work.

When people talk about aging a stout its in the bottle.

 

[labels]

Very few people rack to a secondary these days with any style of beer. The main reason is the risks outweigh the benefits. The fact that you have shouldn't make too much difference but the risks are (not necessarily in order) picking up oxygen (beer is like an oxygen sponge), infection and risk of fermentation by-products if fermentation wasn't 100% complete, mainly acetaldehyde and diacetyl. This compares to the risks of keeping it on the yeast of which the main one is the yeast autolysing. It actually takes a lot for yeast to autolyse, usually some sort of catalyst to start the process of yeast dying and cannibalizing such as salt (used in the production of Vegemite)

As soon as your stout is 100% fermented, you can leave it in the primary, drop the temperature and hold it for a week or two or until the yeast has dropped. Then bottle and allow it to condition in the bottle. Bottles will age faster anyway because of their small size.

 

[brewtopbeer]

Thanks guys for your feedback, so I should just bottle because it was 100% fermented before I racked to secondary? Is 2 days going to matter with my stout sitting in my secondary? What are your thoughts on what I should do?

 

[labels]

Thanks guys for your feedback, so I should just bottle because it was 100% fermented before I racked to secondary? Is 2 days going to matter with my stout sitting in my secondary? What are your thoughts on what I should do?

If it went into the secondary as relatively clear beer you might as well use it for your bottling. Bulk prime the secondary and bottle immediately, the conditioning will take place in the bottles.

 

[brewtopbeer]

Cheers labels your help is appreciated a lot. Thanks again!

 

[panzerd18]

Stouts can be left to age for years.

 

[butisitart]

me agree - leave stout and all beers in general in primary for 2 weeks, more or less. it ferments properly, it clears (in the case of beers that you want clear), and less chance of exploding bottles cos not fully fermented. and, i dunno, but they always seem to have a wonderful balanced feel about them.
i think whoever invented double racking should be put on a rack and publicly humiliated according to medieval tradition.

 

[Yob]

Very few people rack to a secondary these days with any style of beer. The main reason is the risks outweigh the benefits.

Not entirely so.. I rack for various reasons.. I'll be racking a pale out soon to secondary because I want the SS FV fro my RIS (I do flush the secondary FV with co2)

In other times, Ive racked RIS onto raspberries in secondary, Ive racked RIS onto a cake to help it finish in secondary.. Ive racked because the stupid amounts I was dry hopping a IIIPA was threatening to block the tap outlet...

there are many reasons for racking to secondary but "just coz" isnt a good one.

There are risks as noted above but these can be minimised with a teeny bit of preparation and planning.. its always good to rack while it still has a few points to go so any oxygen that is picked up can be chewed up by active yeast.

 

[labels]

I entirely agree with you Yob, racking for a specific reason makes sense. However, my reply was in response to another post where the perception was 'you always rack to a secondary'. A carry-over from older home brewing techniques that have been largely superseded. If there is no specific reason to rack to a secondary, then why do it is probably a better way to explain it