Secondary Fermentation To Bottling Question

[Marmaduke]

HI, I've only recently started brewing and have been experimenting with kits and extracts - so far reasonably happy with the results. However I have been looking at ways to improve my beer, namely through decanting the beer after primary fermentation into a second fermenter and letting it sit for a further week or so (secondary fermentation).

my question:

If I were to do this, after the secondary fermentation - will there be enough yeast left to carbonate the priming sugar when I bottle? (I do the 1tsp per bottle trick) Or will I need to put a little bit more yeast in before bottling?

thanks in advance!

 

[craig maher]

my question:

If I were to do this, after the secondary fermentation - will there be enough yeast left to carbonate the priming sugar when I bottle? (I do the 1tsp per bottle trick) Or will I need to put a little bit more yeast in before bottling?

thanks in advance!
[/quote]

There will be plenty of viable yeast after racking - additional yeast won't be required

Cheers

Craig

 

[jdsaint]

HI, I've only recently started brewing and have been experimenting with kits and extracts - so far reasonably happy with the results. However I have been looking at ways to improve my beer, namely through decanting the beer after primary fermentation into a second fermenter and letting it sit for a further week or so (secondary fermentation).

my question:

If I were to do this, after the secondary fermentation - will there be enough yeast left to carbonate the priming sugar when I bottle? (I do the 1tsp per bottle trick) Or will I need to put a little bit more yeast in before bottling?

thanks in advance!

Mate what you are doing is almost fine, try doin this
1 Week in primary fermenter
Rack to secondary (Reply if you are unsure on what to do)
Leave secondary for 1 week
before you bottle Add around 160-175g dextrose in 200ml hotwater (melt in cup first before adding to secondary)
You can also sit it in a fridge for a couple of days before bottling, cleans the brew right out (clean and clear beer) the bottles will still gas up..
I had the same q's you have mate...cheers! :beer:

 

[albrews]

my question:

If I were to do this, after the secondary fermentation - will there be enough yeast left to carbonate the priming sugar when I bottle? (I do the 1tsp per bottle trick) Or will I need to put a little bit more yeast in before bottling?

thanks in advance!
There will be plenty of viable yeast after racking - additional yeast won't be required

Cheers

Craig

hi, they say 1 micron filtering removes most of the yeast. and bottle carbonation is difficult after this level of filtering

cheers

 

[Marmaduke]

Mate what you are doing is almost fine, try doin this
1 Week in primary fermenter
Rack to secondary (Reply if you are unsure on what to do)
Leave secondary for 1 week
before you bottle Add around 160-175g dextrose in 200ml hotwater (melt in cup first before adding to secondary)
You can also sit it in a fridge for a couple of days before bottling, cleans the brew right out (clean and clear beer) the bottles will still gas up..
I had the same q's you have mate...cheers! :beer:

hey, thanks very much for the help everyone! I have found in my past few weeks of reading up on homebrew that 95% of what I read is either contradictory, doesnt make sense/full of jargon or isnt explained well enough for me to understand :blink: haha so some good straight answers are really helpful, thanks again.

just to clarify one thing, the 160-175g dextrose is for a standard 23-25L batch? ((and I assume carefully mix that in, so as not to disturb the seditment at the bottom))

and also, regarding the racking, I was assuming I would siphon from the original fermentation tub (starter kit variety) to another similar fermentation tub, with air lock and everything for the secondary ferment.... sound good?

I havent quite figured out a way to siphon, I was going to cross that bridge when I came to it haha

cheers again

 

[Doogiechap]

Hey Marmaduke,
Definately transfer your beer to another container before bulk priming You won't be able to mix the priming sugar without mixing the trub too :huh: .
To rack just purchase some cheap food grade clear PVC hose from Bunnings or your Home Brew Shop that will fit snugly over your tap, you need enough length so when your fermenter is on a bench the hose will coil slightly in the vessel you intend transferring into. Remove the air lock so you don't dump sanitiser in your beer and turn on your tap. The idea is to transfer with as little splashing as possible to avoid oxygenation of the beer.
Siphoning can be done but the tap transfer will be much easier with most of the trub being left behind.

Make sure your new vessel, the hose, the outside and inside of your tap are sanitised before proceeding.

Another handy tip. Cut 50mm off your bottling wand and buy some hose to join the halves back together you now can line your bottles all up and just transfer the bottling wand. You can use this setup (without the long bit of wand) for your racking transfer too !
Happy brewing !
Cheers
Doug

 

[poppa joe]

I just use a hose from TAP to TAP..
cheers
PJ

 

[Marmaduke]

awesome, sounds quite easy cheers. This will be my project for the weekend.

Next weekend I intend to set up a fridgemate thingy to my spare fridge to controll the temp for my fermenting.

Brisbane weather has been anything from 20C to 32C...which cant be too good for my beer, I have 2 fermenting right now which hopefully wont taste like arse!

thanks again for the help guys, my taste buds shall thank you!

 

[The King of Spain]

I have been looking at ways to improve my beer, namely through decanting the beer after primary fermentation into a second fermenter and letting it sit for a further week or so

I've gone down this exact same road. Secondary is not necessary with ales and jury still out on largers. If you have a fridge with temp control give your beer a diactel rest when you hit 1020 (by raising temp to say 22C) and when you have hit and your FG bring it down to zero. Everything will drop to the bottom in a deep sleep leaving a nice clean beer (leave it there for 3 days).

I also use Kopperfloc from Craftbrewer which drops most of the gunk out before it even reaches your fermenter

I fluffed around with secondaries for a while and have never looked back. Waste of time!

Good luck

 

[jdsaint]

I've gone down this exact same road. Secondary is not necessary with ales and jury still out on largers. If you have a fridge with temp control give your beer a diactel rest when you hit 1020 (by raising temp to say 22C) and when you have hit and your FG bring it down to zero. Everything will drop to the bottom in a deep sleep leaving a nice clean beer (leave it there for 3 days).

I also use Kopperfloc from Craftbrewer which drops most of the gunk out before it even reaches your fermenter

I fluffed around with secondaries for a while and have never looked back. Waste of time!

Good luck

I disagree, I rack my ale's to secondary for a week, put them in a uncontrol fridge (the temp controller) but its at 4-5* for 2-3 days before bottle.

Not saying that what you do is wrong, but from leaving it in primary until I bottle it (used to do) & now I secondary ferment make it cleaner, crisper, Nicer beer.

It's all experimentation as they say "Make brewing fun". :beer:

 

[Bobby]

i dont bother with racking either. i just leave it on the cake for a lttle extra then drop the temp down to 2c for a couple days then rack the beer straight into the keg. clear beers always.

 

[Brewtus]

Another handy tip. Cut 50mm off your bottling wand and buy some hose to join the halves back together you now can line your bottles all up and just transfer the bottling wand. You can use this setup (without the long bit of wand) for your racking transfer too !
Happy brewing !
Cheers
Doug

When I bought 2m of tube the other day that fits snugly inside the tap, I grabbed 20mm of a fatter tube that fits snugly around the first and my wand.

 

[The King of Spain]

I have found in my past few weeks of reading up on homebrew that 95% of what I read is either contradictory, doesnt make sense/full of jargon or isnt explained

You may find thats in part due to the time of publishing. Eg earlier papers recommend bakers yeast, wet towels instead of air locks etc.

Yes jargon is an initial barrier as well...

Do a seach for John Palmers book "how to brew", a must read twice.

I also found some good links by checking the links on this site.

Its just a road that has to be travelled.

 

[kook]

awesome, sounds quite easy cheers. This will be my project for the weekend.

Next weekend I intend to set up a fridgemate thingy to my spare fridge to controll the temp for my fermenting.

Brisbane weather has been anything from 20C to 32C...which cant be too good for my beer, I have 2 fermenting right now which hopefully wont taste like arse!

thanks again for the help guys, my taste buds shall thank you!

Once you have temperature control you may find that the secondary step is no longer required for most ales.

The primary purpose (IMO) of racking to a secondary fermenter is to get the beer off the yeast cake as quickly as possible. This is mainly due to the fact that without temperature control, autolysis can occur quickly resulting in off flavours.

With temperature control you have much less chance of this happening. You can also control the fermentation a lot better.

Personally, for "most" ales I normally ferment at a low temp (16-18) for around 7-10 days. I normally then raise the temperature to 22 for another 4-5 days after that, then drop it down to as low as the fridge can go. If it is a reasonably flocculant yeast strain it should clear up quite well ready for racking to a bottling bucket. This sounds very similar to the technique that deaves uses.

The exception to this is where you may want to dry hop, lager, or have strains with low flocculation, where you want to cold condition them for a long period of time to clear them up. If this is the case it is probably worth racking them.

Until you have a fridge, i'd stick to using a secondary fermenter to clear up the beer. Once you've got temperature control, play around and see what suits you.

Remember, every time you rack you're potentially exposing the beer to bacteria. Personally, I prefer to keep the steps to a minimum.

Just my two bob