Secondary Fermenting

[Bats]

Hi guys. I have a couple of extra fermenting buckets now and was wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are of transferring for secondary fermentation.
At the moment, I only transfer prior to bottling and bulk prime in a bottling bucket.
How do some of you guys do it and at what stage of primary do you transfer to secondary?

 

[MHB]

I think you need to search for the term Rack/Racking should keep you busy reading well into the New Year. Yes I know Im a grumpy old bum and should spend the next three hours explaining the whole process and all the options in detail, I just dont have time.

MHB

 

[Bongchitis]

Was gunna leave it but noticed I had 199 posts so bring on 200!

The basics are:

-Racking to secondary is most usually done when primary is almost finnished to reduce sediment and minimise the problem of autolysis (yeast death = vegemite beer)
-Racking is great for conditioning largers etc for extended periods and fining a batch
-Racking is great if you want to bulk prime, just rack onto pre-determined amount of sugar.
-Racking is great for fruit beers and others using flavours/additions as adding the extras at this stage reduces flavour loss due to co2 blow off
-Racking sucks if you are lazy
-Racking increases the risk of infection and oxidation via splashing due to the extra steps and exposure
-Racking, for the most part is not nessesary so I don't do it unless i have issues covered above.

Hope this helps mate..............200!!!!!

 

[Bats]

Ha ha. No worries Bongchitis. Glad I could be the 200.

I will research racking and see how I go. Cheers.

 

[QldKev]

I use to rack my beer into a jerry can and left it to age in a fridge prior to kegging. Worked ok, but now I have extra kegs, I just put the beer striaght into them and store until I need the beer. I'm a slack brewer and removing the extra step from the process is a bonus. As far as the beer is concerned I think it may have cleared faster in the jerry can, but honestly there is not much difference.

For bottling it may be geat to help clear up the beer a bit more. Also if you are doing a lager and want to lager it for a couple of months I would also recommend it. The only thing I would add when transferring to the secondary I always done this just prior to it finishing fermenting; that way it would develop a decent CO2 layer to protect the beer.



Woohoo post 2000 :super:


QldKev

 

[zoidbergmerc]

Double post means you lose the game.

 

[Yeldarb]

I used to rack to a secondary fermenter...I thought it was one of the major steps to improving my beer. I then experimented with 2 brews...one I moved to a secondary, the other I simply left in the primary for an extra week. Based on that, I now leave it in the primary for minimum 2 (often 3) weeks...then drop the temp to about 2 for 5 days or so...nice clean beer without the risk and hastle of moving it around too much. I've never had issues with leaving on the yeast cake...someone once suggested it gives the yeasties a chance to clean up after themself...dunno, I do know there is no need (for me) for gelatine or such.

 

[QldKev]

Double post means you lose the game.

Doh!