Secondary or Bottle?

[UKDavo]

Hey Guys!

Got my 1st brew (draught beer) just about to finish fermentation and I've got a question, should I;

Rack to secondary for 1 week and then bottle for 2 weeks at room temp before fridging and drinking.

OR

Rack to bottle for 3 weeks at room temp before fridging and drinking?

Any advice would be great, Cheers!

 

[Vini2ton]

Being your first brew I'd keep it simple and wait for 2 identical specific gravity readings and bottle. No need for racking. Be patient and wait for proper bottle carbonation (2 or 3 weeks) or maybe sneak a taster every now and then.

 

[UKDavo]

Awesome stuff! Thanks a lot for the reply!

Bottle it shall be!

Got a reading of 1.014 today and it tasted good!

Only been 4 days but I'll wait for consecutive results!

Thanks

 

[menoetes]

Good idea sir, stick with the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle to start with and work your way up from there.

I use secondary a fair bit to produce bright, clear beers but I mainly use it in brews with a fair bit of hops and grain added to them. This produces a lot of trub (the crap settling to the bottom of your fermenter) and it will often settle down around/over the tap opening. I use secondary to keep this stuff out of the bottle. It also stops Autolysis but that's a whole other thing that you don't need to worry about yet...

It has it's place sir and there are pros/cons of using it. If you stick with brewing, I'm sure you'll get to playing around with it eventually but right now it's probably best to just focus on getting a nice simple beer pumped out

 

[i-a-n]

Bottle it.
And more importantly get the next brew on at the same time.
I'd bet a £ to a pinch of s+it you'll be drinking it before 2 weeks are up and you'll need more.

Plan for the future.

 

[UKDavo]

Bottle it.
And more importantly get the next brew on at the same time.
I'd bet a £ to a pinch of s+it you'll be drinking it before 2 weeks are up and you'll need more.

Plan for the future.

Haha! Love it! Yea I'm already thinking up a couple.

Really want to try a lager in time for the summer before the temps get too high. I'll pay a visit to my local brewing shop and have a chat.

Cheers Guys!

 

[Grott]

welcome UKDav. besides consistent hyro readings a good rule of thumb for kit and kilo brews (without to much additions) is 2 weeks in the primary and then bottle. At worst you should have two fermenters going a week apart to keep supplies up, but many like myself brew more than that in winter (easier temp control) for summer stocks.
Cheers and enjoy the brews.

 

[burrster]

I agree with grott, 2 weeks in the primary then bottle for at least 3 weeks, 4 or more is preferable. if you can't wait that long, at least do 2 weeks in the primary, then bottle, and wait as long as you can before trying. The benifit to trying the beer early i guess ( 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks etc) is that you can taste the difference each week of bottle conditioning makes.

 

[UKDavo]

Why the strong need for 2 weeks in the primary? Even after consecutive SG readings?

Do you up the temp? Or literally just leave it for 2 weeks?

 

[Grott]

The 2 weeks allows the yeast to "clean up", the trub settles better and firmer and you can almost guarantee the FG readings have stabilized and running two brews a week apart makes things so simple.
Cheers