Newbie Confused About Secondary

[evh5150]

I have read a lot of posts on this board about transferring to a secondary. I have also read info on a lot of other internet sites that never call for this step in the beer making process.

Is this step necessary? What are the benefits, drawbacks, etc.

I'm ready to purchase equipment to start brewing, and want to make sure I do everything correctly.

Thanks - and by the way, this is an awesome forum! I spent many hour reading here today - eyes are burning.

[Tom C]

A secondary is not absolutely a necessary step, but I would highly recommend it. For many styles of beer the yeast cake that will form as the yeast drops from an active state to inactive may begin to create various (possibly unwanted) off flavors to your beer. General rule of thumb is allow initial fermentation to take place (typically4-5days) then transfer to a secondary. This will allow the beer to be removed form the yeast cake and mature as long as you can stand it. It will also aid in the clarity of your beer.

By moving it to a secondary you can be more flexible to when you want to bottle or keg. Whereas if you keep it on the cake you must adhere to a more timely schedule. As I said some styles may be more desirable to keep on a cake longer than others. For starters purposes though it is not required. The important thing is to make a drinker that is enjoyable!

Tom C

[paul84043]

It also frees up your primary for another batch!!

[mmmBeer...]

I read somewhere that you should wait until at least 50% of the sugars are attenuated. So I think this would mean that if you OG was 1.050 and you expected an FG of 1.010, you would want to wait until it drops to 1.030 before transferring to secondary. I am not sure why this is…

I usually wait about 5-7 days, and go by the bubble rate in the fermentation lock, once it slows down considerable (about 1 bubble every 2 seconds) I will transfer it. Since I use 6 gallon carboys for both primary and secondary I want to make sure there is a nice layer of CO2 on top of the beer after I transfer it.

[YamahaXS]

I like to rack to a carboy for the secondary ferment so that I can see the beer without opening the container. I tend to let my beers sit longer than needed (patience comes with age :D) so having a nice view of the beer is a good thing.

[evh5150]

Thanks for the info. What is the proper way to transfer from the primary to the secondary?

[toneyc]

With a sanitized racking cane and siphon hose. I hear the autosiphons are really nice, but I don't have one. Be careful to keep splashing to a minimum, you don't want to expose the beer to any more oxygen than you have to.

:)
Toney.

[paul84043]

I'll use any one of three methods, there's the Autosiphon, which is a totally cool little gadget, then the autoSiphon, and if the mood strikes me...the autosiPhon....

It's the only way to fly...

[eddiefebuary]

Where can the auto siphon be found? On-line?

[danno]

apparently Toney and I are the last homebrewers in America that don't have an autosiphon. I just don't see the need, I use the red plastic carboy cap, a racking cane, and gravity. I either blow through the second hole in my carboy cap or use co2 to push start my beer into either the secondary or into a corny. Has not failed me yet...

[croc4]

No, not the last ones ;-)
________
Headshops (http://headshop.net/)

[paul84043]

I still use gravity...I just give it some help...for 12$ you really can't beat it.
You can find it online at any homebrew supply store.

[mmmBeer...]

Bought it...love it. Two quick pumps and the beer is a flowin'. Much better than trying to get the racking cane and tube filled with water...much less waste whiel the water then beer flows into a run off container. All beer in the secondary/bottle..getting 40 pints per batch now; instead of 37-38.

[Randumdrunk]

I'll ask here rather than start a new thread. When I siphoned to secondary there is now a half inch head on top and has for the last few hours. I assume this is previously dissolved CO2 escaping but am not sure (I am a hopeless newbie.) How long should the foam stay until I become concerned?

Thanks.

[paul84043]

That's quite a bit....had your primary fermentation died down before you transferred? (Foamed up...bubbled good for a few days...foam fell back down, typically 5 to 7 days)
There's nothing you can do about it now anyway...keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't overflow. There nothing wrong, it should settle back down and go about it's holy business for the next week or so.

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by danno
apparently Toney and I are the last homebrewers in America that don't have an autosiphon. I just don't see the need, I use the red plastic carboy cap, a racking cane, and gravity. I either blow through the second hole in my carboy cap or use co2 to push start my beer into either the secondary or into a corny. Has not failed me yet...

i don't even have a racking cane... :D

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by Randumdrunk
I'll ask here rather than start a new thread. When I siphoned to secondary there is now a half inch head on top and has for the last few hours. I assume this is previously dissolved CO2 escaping but am not sure (I am a hopeless newbie.) How long should the foam stay until I become concerned?

Thanks.

Sounds like to me, that you let your beer splash too much as you moved it into the secondary. This probably won't hurt your beer, but it is best to avoid any and all splashing. I used to have a hard time keeping the beer quiet until I bought an extra long siphon hose. Now it is much easier to get that hose down to the bottom of the secondary container, and still have room to move the other end around in the primary.

[Randumdrunk]

Thanks for the replies. Yamahaxs, I think you're right, I can't siphon for the life of me (my previous experience with brewing was with Malt-o-meal and grapenuts with the intent of any means to the end, quality be damned.) I'm going pick up an auto-siphon Thursday.

[evh5150]

Thanks for all of the replies -

Here's a new question about aging of beer -

Everything I've read says that the longer you let the beer age, the better it gets. Is there a point in time when the beer starts to become stale and bad tasting like old beer bought from a store (past the 'born on date')?

Thanks.

[b3s]

at some point a bottle conditioned ale might either get too alcoholy or get a vinegary taste or get sedimenty. even quality bottle conditioned ales at the paint store will -- as witnessed the abbey i bought a few weeks ago (one bottle good, one bottle had just been sitting too long).

however, the beers with born on, or freshness, dates are not bottle conditioned. the yeast is strained from the beer. therefore they will go bad, just like any other perishable product.

[mmmBeer...]

I think I read somewhere that 6 months is about tops for homebrew. This is off the top of my head, so I could be wrong.

Anyways, my beer rarely makes it past 2 months...geeze, I gotta up production (got 15 gallons on the go now, that should keep me topped up for a while!)

[fuji6100]

I was thinking more along the lines of a year or two. I have a friend who has an entire basement with several refridgerators dedicated to homebrew. He has bottles that are 2 years old that taste fantastic (though he keeps all of his chilled.)

Also, I thought a lot of barleywines and imperial stouts needed to age 6 months anyway... so I'm sure they last a bit longer than that. Not sure of any "maximum" though...

[b3s]

two whole months? wow! my 5 gallon batches last two weeks tops. i need some more carboys, because with one batch in primary and two in secondary i still go a couple of weeks without beer.

[YamahaXS]

beers vary in how well they keep.

some factors are:

alcohol content (persevative)
hop content (higher = longer lasting)
storage environment (low temps, low light = longer lasting)


I was talking to guy at a brewshop in Arlington, Texas while i was visiting family. He said that there was a guy who won a recent contest with a 20 year old hard cider!...

[mmmBeer...]

Sorry, not 2 months in the bottle...I was thinking in terms of from the date I put it in primary. So I guess 3 weeks would be more accurate (at the most). There was a time when it lasted longer, but that was when there was a bunch of us doing it and we were produscing more than we drank!

After finding 2 carboys at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago, I am now up to 8. It is finding the time to get them all filled that is the hard part. 4 seems to be about as much as I can handle unless I find another person to join in and help me out!