? about Secondary

[Harrington]

Hi All,

I have a batch that I let ferment in the primary for 10 days, and yesterday I transferred it into a glass carboy, and added half an ounce of cascade hops. What I'm wondering, is how long can I keep it in the secondary? If I plan on keeping it in there for more than two weeks, should I transfer it into a 3rd fermenter?? I would like to wait on the bottling for maybe four more weeks.

Thanks!

[gestyr]

4 weeks would be ok. I often leave mine in secondary that long.

Did you use leaf or pellet hops to dry hop?

[Harrington]

Thank you for the response....

I used pellet hops. I am assuming that they will eventually fall to the bottom?

Any idea when a 3rd fermenter is used? Basically, why?

Thanks!

[gestyr]

I have never used one.

As for the pellets, they should mostly drop though they may leave a ring around the top of the beer. Nothing to be concerned about. One tip I have for siphoning to your bottling bucket: put a stainless steel dryer screen covered by a nylon sock over the end of your syphon. It will filter out all the hop particles.

[Harrington]

I have never used one.

As for the pellets, they should mostly drop though they may leave a ring around the top of the beer. Nothing to be concerned about. One tip I have for siphoning to your bottling bucket: put a stainless steel dryer screen covered by a nylon sock over the end of your syphon. It will filter out all the hop particles.


I forgot to mention....last week I took your advice, and used the nylon...and it worked freakin' awesome. NO particles in the bottling bucket!! Thanks for the advice!:)

[gestyr]

Glad to help. And I actually think I learned that trick from one of the forums on here or another of the pages I frequent.