Secondary fermenter and dry hopping

[Toad]

I've been watching a bit on you tube lately and notice a lot of Americans are big fans of siphoning into a secondary fermenter after about a week then dry hopping.
What do you guys reckon?
My Lhbs told me to not even take the kid off let alone siphon as I risk oxidised beer.
I like the idea of clearer beer and I don't like a very bitter taste so I wanted to just dry hop just for aroma with amorillo or Galaxy.
Thoughts?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Personally I use a secondary, others will disagree, but more often than not it is the cask which is my secondary, careful transfer and an injection of CO2 in the secondary vessel is fine never had an infection from implementing the use a second vessel.

 

[Toad]

Yeah I have an auto siphon so careful transfer is easy but not sure how to fill the secondary with co2???
Also read the gentle mix the brew gets with the transfer revitalises the yeast for final fermentation before cold crash.
Thoughts?

 

[seamad]

CO2 from bottle if kegging.
Clearer beer is easily achieved by cold crashing at as close to 0 C you can get for a few days. Certain yeasts are better at dropping out nice and clear too, for eg 1272 way better than US05, and the best are English yeasts like 1469 etc.
Only use secondary myself for long term sours.

 

[SBOB]

I've been watching a bit on you tube lately and notice a lot of Americans are big fans of siphoning into a secondary fermenter after about a week then dry hopping.
What do you guys reckon?
My Lhbs told me to not even take the kid off let alone siphon as I risk oxidised beer.
I like the idea of clearer beer and I don't like a very bitter taste so I wanted to just dry hop just for aroma with amorillo or Galaxy.
Thoughts?

Moving from your primary fermenter to a 'secondary' won't provide you any benefit in regards to clarity or bitterness, for any regular fermentation where you're going to be going from yeast pitch -> keg/bottle in under 1 month (arbitrary time period). If anything, the benefits of less oxidation risk outweigh any perceived benefits

If you are going for very long lagering period or souring in the fermenter there 'may' be benefits from moving off the yeast cake

 

[Toad]

Thanks I'll stick with primary.
What about the dry hopping then?

 

[seamad]

There's a couple of threads covering dry hopping, but I wait until fermentation finished, add hops direct to fermenter at ferment temp for 1-2 days then CC for 3 days @ 0C.

 

[Toad]

Thanks mate

 

[Curly79]

I normally wait untill day 7 of fermentation, unscrew the lid, pour them in. Never had any dramas. In saying that I just did exactly that this arvo. Dry hopped 30 g of Citra in a pale ale that had very little krausen or air lock activity and just had a peek then maybe 1 Hour later. To my suprise its bubbling every 10 seconds or so and has a nice little krausen going on? Thoughts anyone?

 

[razz]

Probably CO2 coming out of solution due to all the solids

 

[pdjhh]

Hi guys. I just joined the forum and found this thread along the lines of my question. I've only been brewing for a couple of months but things have been going really well. I've been using canned or fresh worts and am kegging. I wanted to start using hops so asked in the shop and put 30g of pellets into my last pale ale on day 4 of fermenting. When I eventually kegged it, I got a lot of harp bits in the keg. I had people coming so had to think on my feet. I steralized a cloth in boiling water then slowly poured it through that into another keg that I'd filled with CO2 first. I was really lucky and it turned out great. Trouble is I doin't want to be relying on lock everytime now that I'm hooked on these hop additions.

I've got another on the go now and and wondering how to avoid getting all the hoppy bits across into the keg. I was looking at 'secondary fermenting' (or rather just letting it sit) in another bucket for a few days but I"m worried about oxidisation, not having a carboy like the Americans suggest. Maybe I disturbed the first one too much? Should the hoppy bits settle on the bottom by themselves?

Thanks.

 

[Rocker1986]

Do you have a fridge to ferment in? You can chill the fermenter down after it hits FG which drops out a lot of particulate matter, including hop bits. If not, you can contain the hops in something when dry hopping.

I also usually drain off a bit of beer from the fermenter before beginning to fill the keg, either into a glass, or by transferring a few litres into another FV to be bottled. That way pretty well all the **** is gone before the keg is filled and you get none or a very minor amount into it. I did a 90g loose dry hop in an IPA last year and go not hop bits in the keg at all by following those procedures. B)

 

[pdjhh]

Ok thanks that's really along the lines I"m looking for. I do have a fridge but I wasn't sure if the cooling only aided the protein based clearing whereas my issue is these physical bits. Draining off a bit is a good tip too, they must all be hanging around in the same sort of level for this to work I guess? I might look at hops bags too.

Thanks a lot!

 

[VanDrago]

I've been watching a bit on you tube lately and notice a lot of Americans are big fans of siphoning into a secondary fermenter after about a week then dry hopping.
What do you guys reckon?
My Lhbs told me to not even take the kid off let alone siphon as I risk oxidised beer.
I like the idea of clearer beer and I don't like a very bitter taste so I wanted to just dry hop just for aroma with amorillo or Galaxy.
Thoughts?

There are 2 reasons why you should transfer to secondary:

1. Yeast autolysis that produces off-flavours
2. Harvesting yeast for another brew.

 

[GalBrew]

Neither of the above reasons necessitate transferring to a secondary fermenter.

 

[sp0rk]

I have a feeling VanDrago read the online version of How To Brew and is now going round searching for secondary threads to assert this new found (disproven) information

 

[Jens-Kristian]

I tend to use a secondary for my brews but that's mostly because for a long time I didn't have a brew fridge. As has been amply attested in this thread and many other on this board, it's doubtful if I'm getting any meaningful benefits out of it – or any benefit at all. To be honest, I can't say I've noted any actual difference.

What I have usually done, is run a hose between the tap of the primary fermenter and the tap on the secondary; having first poured boiling water into the tap to attempt some form of sterilisation; not exactly bulletproof, I know. The secondary, i've sterilised with boiling water in advance. Again, hardly bulletproof but I like boiling water for cleaning purposes. I've never had an infection and neither do I believe I've had oxidisation problems at any stage.

I guess my main reason for secondary therefore, has had to do with 'this is how I've always done it' rather than any real necessity. That said, one of my more recent brews ended up sitting in the secondary in my brew fridge for 18 months before I got around to bottling it. Whether that would have been OK in the primary, I don't know but it turned out very well anyway.

For dry hopping I always just use a hop sock. It's easy that way.

I really just need to let go of the secondary; no need for it for most beers.

How do people feel about secondary for big beer left for 6-12 months though? Still OK in primary?