Racking

[philmud]

Probably also worth pointing out for the OP that the reluctance to rack for most is due to the increased risk of i) oxidization (makes your beer taste of wet cardboard) and ii) infection. These risks can be fairly easily mitigated with fastidious sanitization and careful racking, but many choose not to take ANY risk because they don't consider any benefit to be worthwhile. I believe that racking used to be par for course years ago, but that improvements in the years we have available make autolysis unlikely to occur in a typical beer, unless it's left on the yeast cake for an extended period (months).

 

[skb]

I am doing my first pilsner today mashing at 64c, my planned ferment and racking is as follows :

1) s-23 for 14days at 10c
2) 14 days at 12c
3) D-Rest 18c for 3 days
4) larger for 42 days at 4c in keg

My question is ;

1) I was planning to rack to secondary at the start of the second 14 days is this the right time ?

2) is there any point doing a D-rest is I have racked to secondary ( is there enough yeast)

3) of topic slightly with largering in keg do I carbonate it or not ?

 

[mckenry]

1) hard and fast rules regarding time are dangerous. 14 days should have it done if u pitch enough yeast and oxygenate. But if u must rack, then you'll probably be at the right gravity.
2) d-rest is usually beneficial. Mostly if u have pitched a bit warmer, you'll need a d-rest. If you pitched at 10 and your yeast was at 10 you probably won't need a d-rest. Taste will tell you if u need it. Yes there will be enough yeast for it to work.
I would skip 12 degrees for 14 days. Just go to d-rest after point 1 either in your primary (my choice) or secondary if you want to. Raise 2 degrees per day. Some say 1 but I don't wait that long.
Can u really wait 42 days? Hahaha not me.
With lagering I undercarb in the keg. Just enough to purge the oxygen. I bump it up after a week to serving pressure then drink it. If I'm hard up ill force carb it and drink on day 2.

 

[skb]

I have to say the chances of 42 days is not high but that's the theory !! Thanks for the advice I will taste at 14 days and make a call on if to keep going. I will be using dry yeast from the fridge into 10c so may be ok.

 

[Bribie G]

As with many things in the world of home brew, I consider that racking came into beer brewing as a carry over from the winemaking fraternity. Another famous example of a carry over is the dreaded airlock. The early beer brewers back in the 60s and 70s had no tradition of their own, and many of them just did what they had been doing as winemakers or what the early beer literature such as CJJ Berry told them to do.

As I posted somewhere last week, another reason that racking seemed attractive is that traditionally, German and Czech and other "lager" brewing traditions use racking to get the beer off the yeast cake and into lagering tanks for a few weeks.

I don't even do that nowadays, last year I did a couple of lagers just in primary, then lagered for 10 days. Both did ok in the State comp and one of them got a second in the Nationals, so that decided the point for me.
there you go I automatically used the word "primary", shows how ingrained the concept can be.

 

[Phoney]

Besides whats been already mentioned, I find racking useful at giving lazy yeasts a kick up the backside when they give up at ~1.020, Im looking at you WY1968 ESB. You lazy yet delicious *******.

Sure you can give them a gentle stir with a spoon, but Ive not had a 100% success rate with that as opposed to racking.