Skipping secondary?

[Dextolen]

I am making two beers for a brew contest when some renovation issues at my house forced me to not transfer one of the beers from 1 to 2ndary at the one week mark, it's been 2 weeks. The ferment was a slow one, and I actually still had bubble at 1 week, if I skip 2ndary how will that effect my beer, I've never done that before.

[deucedaily]

I have done some searching on this topic as I am new to the homebrew scene. Everyone you talk to will have different opinions. I personally only do single stage fermentation in my bucket. Most of the stuff I have read up on is that a secondary is crucial for lagers and high gravity brews, but for most ales it is unnecessary. Some logic I got from my lhbs is "You can rack it off and let it settle for another week, or just leave it in the primary for that same week, and it should settle out the same amount."

Made good sense to me, but again I'm only about 5 batches in, so it is subject to change with time.

[corkybstewart]

Dex, I never use secondary, I just leave my beer in primary a couple of weeks after fermentation has stopped. It will clear up as much as it would in secondary, without the risk of infection and oxidation you get with racking to secondary. My Get Real ESB will stay in primary probably 3 weeks and then go directly to bottles. And I do this whether I'm fermenting in buckets or my conical.

[Dextolen]

I remember reading that a risk of a long primary is that the yeast cannabalizes itself producing off flavors. How soon does that begin on a medium abv brew?

[corkybstewart]

Originally posted by Dextolen
I remember reading that a risk of a long primary is that the yeast cannabalizes itself producing off flavors. How soon does that begin on a medium abv brew?

It would take several months for autolysis to rear its head. I've had beer in primary for 6 weeks that turned out great.

[hooky]

FWIW, my last 3 haven't been racked to a secondary. The longest that one has set in primary so far has been 4 weeks. It was an IPA that lasted about 8 weeks in the keg and there weren't any off flavors that I could detect. I brewed corky's wife beer and it was in the primary 25 days. I tasted it when I racked to the corny and I didn't taste anything funky there either.

[Dextolen]

Thanks for relieving my fears, guys. my one week primary mandate may be why I sometimes fall short of expected ABVs.