When To Rack?

[KGB]

Hi all, I've had a quick search but can't find the answers I'm looking for.

Bascially I've got a Coopers Pale Ale with 1kg dextrose and 250g LDME (just a random concoction) fermenting with some S-04 yeast. Its been in the fermenter for 12 days now at~20 degrees with my heater and fridgemate controlling the business. SG is now at about 1008 but there is still the occasional bubble through the airlock and when I take a sample it still has a bit of yeast/sediment suspended in it.

Should I rack now or leave it in the primary for a few more days? I have another fermenter that I can use for racking - do I just rack the beer and let it settle in the fridge for a few weeks or what?
I'm a bit lost as to what would be the best way to proceed from here.

Thanks.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

This is an area where people differ a fair bit and arguments have on occassion raged.

I started off not racking - ie: leaving it in the one fermenter for the duration. Then, I moved to racking the beer into a second fermenter to brighten up a bit for a couple of weeks. Now, I have flip-flopped back to allowing it to brighten in the primary fermenter. For the sort of beer you're looking at, I would leave it in there for a total of two-three weeks and bottle straight out of it. Use your second fermenter for a second beer, remember - an empty fermenter is an unhappy fermenter.

 

[braufrau]

Hi all, I've had a quick search but can't find the answers I'm looking for.

Bascially I've got a Coopers Pale Ale with 1kg dextrose and 250g LDME (just a random concoction) fermenting with some S-04 yeast. Its been in the fermenter for 12 days now at~20 degrees with my heater and fridgemate controlling the business. SG is now at about 1008 but there is still the occasional bubble through the airlock and when I take a sample it still has a bit of yeast/sediment suspended in it.

Should I rack now or leave it in the primary for a few more days? I have another fermenter that I can use for racking - do I just rack the beer and let it settle in the fridge for a few weeks or what?
I'm a bit lost as to what would be the best way to proceed from here.

Thanks.

I vote for don't rack ales. Just leave it 2 more days and then bottle.
There are risks associated with racking.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-4.html

 

[Fatgodzilla]

This is an area where people differ a fair bit and arguments have on occassion raged.

I started off not racking - ie: leaving it in the one fermenter for the duration. Then, I moved to racking the beer into a second fermenter to brighten up a bit for a couple of weeks. Now, I have flip-flopped back to allowing it to brighten in the primary fermenter. For the sort of beer you're looking at, I would leave it in there for a total of two-three weeks and bottle straight out of it. Use your second fermenter for a second beer, remember - an empty fermenter is an unhappy fermenter.

Ditto Spillsmostofits sentiments. I went looking for this answer several months ago and could not find anyone who would say with any conviction whether it was worthwhile / good / bad racking an ALE (of course different for LAGER). I do it because I can. Actually, my secondary is an 18litre cube so I rack that and bottle the balance. As yet, I haven't been able to compare the shall we say bottled from primary compared to bottled after cold conditioning as the beers anen't ready yet but will in a few weeks time when they carb up better in the warmer weather. But my research in these threads and asking everyone I could was .. no one who responded had a bloody clue as to whether you should rack an ALE or whether racking the ale will have any significant improvement on the ale. Me, I do it so I can bulk prime and bottle at a later date when the need to fiddle with a brew comes over me.

 

[Fents]

+1 rack for Lagers

+1 NO rack for Ales

 

[mfdes]

I second that.
If I'm bottling I never rack ales. Let them clear a bit in the primary and then bottle.

Different story for kegging though. A week in a secondary to clarify does wonders for the finished product. My secondary for kegging is another keg. I can then move the beer with CO2 pressure and no air contact.

MFS.

 

[albrews]

Hi all, I've had a quick search but can't find the answers I'm looking for.

Bascially I've got a Coopers Pale Ale with 1kg dextrose and 250g LDME (just a random concoction) fermenting with some S-04 yeast. Its been in the fermenter for 12 days now at~20 degrees with my heater and fridgemate controlling the business. SG is now at about 1008 but there is still the occasional bubble through the airlock and when I take a sample it still has a bit of yeast/sediment suspended in it.

Should I rack now or leave it in the primary for a few more days? I have another fermenter that I can use for racking - do I just rack the beer and let it settle in the fridge for a few weeks or what?
I'm a bit lost as to what would be the best way to proceed from here.

Thanks.

hi, a good question. i know a brewshop expert who frequently uses racking, and his beers were starting to become infected and had "off" flavours. particulary in summer. i do not rack and i do not have infection problems.

cheers, alan

 

[warra48]

I don't rack my ales either, I just leave them in the fermenter between 2 to 3 weeks, before bottling. My beers end up clear with no problems.
I do rack and lager my Pils, as I can ferment and lager them in my brewfridge, but don't do many of those.
My preference is for ales anyway. For this summer I have a bavarian wheat planned, and plan to dump a dunkelweizenbock onto the yeast cake. They'll make great summer drinking.

 

[KGB]

Sweet, thanks everyone for the quick advice. I did forget to mention though that I plan on kegging it, rather than bottling.

Different story for kegging though. A week in a secondary to clarify does wonders for the finished product. My secondary for kegging is another keg. I can then move the beer with CO2 pressure and no air contact.

MFS.

MFS, could you give me a bit more info on this - I have a spare keg I can use (as well as the spare fermenter! :wacko: ). I read up a little on transferring from keg to keg using CO2 but if there is sediment in the bottom of the racking keg isn't it going to get sucked straight up the "beer out" tube and just pump the sediment into the next keg?
I'll have another look and see if I can find the link and work it out - if anyone could post it up I'd appreciate it.

 

[RobboMC]

A classic case of " ask 2 brewers a question and you will get 3 different answers'

IMHO learning to rack CLEANLY, confidently and easily is essential to progressing as a brewer. I rack every brew now, lager or ale.

Why?

1) becuase it's good to practice so when you need to rack that exceptional lager that you spent 3 weeks making then you can do it properly.

2) once uncontaminated racking is a given, then racking MAY improve your ale but it will NOT make is worse. So I choose to rack in the hope that it improves.

3) yeast bite, more than one informed source has written that racking decreases the yeast bite, but so might better yeast

4) when racked, I can leave the brew until I have the time to bottle it, safe away from the trub. Left in the primary, I NEED to bottle it on just the right day. For me with 5 kids, this is the MOST important and deciding issue of all, I can make a brew one weekend, rack it during the week after say 4-5 days, then leave it for 10 more days and bottle 2, 3 or even 4 weekends later without stress.

5) racking allows you the possibility of chilling for a day prior to bittling, a practice I have found seems to make the beer better.

After all that, I'd just bottle the one you have, it's not got enough 'stuff' in it to make racking worthwhile, unless you want the practise. But an Imperial IPA wit about 5 kgs of fermentables, well that would be definately worth racking.

 

[mfdes]

I often also dry hop in the secondary, mostly a firestone keg.
Two things I do to ensure the beer is fairly clear (I have to say I don't mind haze or yeast in my brew and if other people drinking it do, it's their problem not mine): Leave in the primary an extra week or so after fermentation stops to settle the yeast cake. This also acts as a diacetyl rest. I generally leave the temperature at ~18-20 degrees for at least three days after fermentation is complete (diacetyl rest) then lower it to ~1 degree for 2-3 days to ensure the yeast drops off. If you have no temperature control then leave it a week at whatever temp you have.

Then I rack into a Firestone keg that I have modified by pulling out the liquid cane and sticking a stainless steel scourer pad at the end (filter), then replacing it. I use this keg to clarify and dry hop with whole whops. Pellets I add to the primary on the last day or two of fermentation.

I put the keg in the fridge to carbonate and settle any remaining yeast, then use a liquid-liquid jumper I had the homebrew shop make me ($25) to transfer the beer to the second keg where I have purged out the air with CO2. No air contact.

One important thing I found important after sanitising (I use peracetic acid) was to make sure press down on your liquid post centre bit to let some air in and clear the liquid tube. Otherwise it often retains sanitiser in it which you want to minimise contact of with your brew (even though it may be a no-rinse sanitiser like mine).

Finally, for years I just racked into a glass carboy and used that as a secondary to clarify the beer. Works well but may be more prone to oxidation.

Hope this helps.

MFS.

 

[KGB]

OK: After reading Braufrau's link (thanks! ) and going over the keg-to-keg transfer thread I decided to give it a try racking using a spare keg, like MFS described and using what is now known as the Zwickel Method to transfer the beer to another keg. I am ready to Zwickel my beer, lol

Next question - once I've racked my beer from the primary into the first keg, do I let it sit at ~20 degrees or do I chill it down, like lagering?

Once its been racked for a week or so, I plan to purge a couple of glasses worth from the keg to get most of the sediment out. Will this work and if it does, is there any point transferring the beer to a clean keg?

EDIT: I need to type faster... :s

So now I'm thinking I'll just leave it a few more days, transfer it to the keg, chill in the fridge for a few weeks, purge the bottom bit of the keg via the beer-out (hopefully taking yeast with it) and then force carb as per normal. Any suggestion/objections?

EDIT2: Looks like after starting this thread on racking my brew I'm not really going to be racking it at all! Thanks for all the help everyone, hopefully this thread can be of use to the next clueless noob.