I see this question alot in the homebrew forums on-line: “How long should I leave my beer in secondary?”

 This depends on a lot of things.  The reason most people do a secondary fermentation step is to get more stuff to settle out of the beet.  If you use a glass carboy for this (preferred) then you can visually check the beer on a week to week basis.  Once the level of junk at the bottom doesn’t change much you are good to go.  I think in most applications 2-weeks should be plenty to help clarify a beer.

 The second reason is to “bulk” age or maturate a beer.  Again this is very recipe dependent.  If the beer is not a high alcohol beer then it will mature faster than a big monster beer.  Lastly, you really will just need to experiment with maturation times.  You get a sense from the bottled product too if longer maturation is needed.  Then next time you brew maybe you can add some of that time to the secondary instead of waiting it out in the bottle.

 The last thing to concern yourself with extended secondaries is yeast for bottling. If you plan to bottle condition (prime with sugar before bottling for natural carbonation) generally there will always be enough yeast to carbonate.  The longer the secondary the long it may take to carb.  With that said though, if I was to leave something in secondary for 6 months or more… that yeast may be worn out and too weak to really carbonate well, and adding an eighth to a quarter packet of rehydrated dry yeast to the bottling bucket may be necessary.

I hope that helps clear up some of that issue.
Check out these other threads of ours regarding secondary (and primary) fermentation:

Primary Fermentation

Skip the Secondary

Better Bottle Carboy 

Spices in Secondary 

Acidulated Malt is an ingredient that I wanted to learn more about, so I did some research around the topic and consolidated it into this post.  Acidulated malt appears to be the brand name by the Weyermann Company.  Other maltsters may call this malt “acid malt.  It is produced using lactic acid.  From the Weyerman site, lactic acid is not added to the grain; it’s produced using the naturally occuring lactic bacteria on the malt.    

Most sources explained that this malt can be used to change the pH of the mash or wort.  Having a more acidic pH assists in enzymes breaking down more starch for fermentation.  The Weyermann site gave a simple equation to lower the pH:

1% of the grain bill to reduce the pG by 0.1.

Flavor: Sour Character

Color: 1.7° - 1.8° lovibond

Use:  If your water is high in alkalinity, using this special malt may help you make better beer.  I think a good understanding of your water and getting very familiar with all grain brewing are prerequisites before using this malt for this purpose (you may not need to adjust the pH of your mash/wort).

Outside of adjusting your pH, you could use this malt in making the sour beer style of the Berliner Weisse.   The Weyermann site suggested using 8% of your grain bill of acidulated malt to produce the intended result.   I have the idea that this beer could be used to make other sour beer styles too.

The 4th of July is around the corner and I am planning on banging out four great American Ales in honor of the Holiday. I’ll post the 4 recipes of the next 4 days but I’ll use this post as an anchor for the brewlog.

The beers I am going to crank out are as follows:

American Cream Ale
American Wheat
American IPA
American Brown Ale

The American IPA is already in bottles and that recipe can be found on this thread. If I can, I’ll crank out another batch of it and dry hop it this time too.

It’s a bit of a challenge with only a little over a month to go before the 4th but if I pitch healthy yeast with big enough starters, I should be able to skip the secondaries and go right to the bottle. (Or maybe its time to get a new kegerator???)

I think my best approach is to brew the Cream ale up, then use the cake from that beer as for the yeast pitches I need for the Brown and the Wheat. That should give me plenty of yeast to get a good fast ferment. For all these recipes I plan to use the Fermentis US-05 yeast. It’s currently my favorite American Ale yeast.

Cheers and stay connected to check the progress!

I remember when I first started homebrewing.  I should since it was only three years ago.  If I couldn’t remember, I would rack it up to too much homebrew…but that’s not the case.

On July 4th, 2005, I brewed up a True Brew Amber Ale.  I had purchased my equipment kit along with this recipe kit two weeks prior to the brew day.  I had brewed with the other brew dude Mike a few times in the past but this was the first time I brewed on my own.  I read the simple instructions that came with the recipe kit a few times to make sure I understood everything. 

I did my best cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment.  My uncle gave me a tip about brewing and suggested I buy spring water.  I got 5 gallons of the store brand spring water to make my amber ale.    

I got the largest pot that we had and poured a gallon and a half of the spring water into it.  I was able to stick the half empty (or is it half full) gallon with the 3 other unopened gallons in the fridge.  Getting the rest of the water to refrigerator temperature was key to get the wort cool enough for me to pitch my yeast.

From what I can recall, the boil went fine.  I think the kit came with two cans of malt extract, which I added at the start of the boil.   Once the hour was up, I put the pot in an ice bath in my kitchen sink.  I took the spring water out of the fridge and pour it all into the fermentation bucket.  Once that was done, I poured the wort into the bucket.  I took a look at the temperature strip on the side of the bucket and saw that I had cooled it down to 70 degrees.  It was like magic.

I fermented the brew for a week and then bottled it up.  I kept checking the bottles everyday to see what was happening inside of them.  I saw the yeast clumping up into big particles by day 7 and I really thought I messed things up.  I opened one up to taste how bad it was and was surprised to find it wasn’t undrinkable. 

A week later, I brought a 22 oz bomber to some event over Brian Hammer’s apartment.  I opened it up and we all took a swig.  Mike gave me a “not bad” look.   Certainly wasn’t the best beer in the whole world (no real character) but a good start.  

Mike brought over a book he got recently for our homebrewing tasting session.  It’s written by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer and it’s entitled Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew.  

When it comes to homebrewing recipes, Mike and I formulate our own based on our experience and on recipes we see (online and offline).  This book has definitive recipes coming from a guy who has won a ton of awards for his homebrews.

I thumbed through the book and I did see that it had recipes following an all grain procedure along with partial mash and extract only versions. 

I went on to Amazon and saw that some reviewers were disappointed by the book.  For the most part, I think they thought they were getting a book that had more science behind the recipes rather than just the recipes themselves. 

From what I saw, it looked like it was worth the purchase…as long as you understand that it’s just a bunch of recipes. 

Formulating your own recipes is fun, but it’s nice to have another point of reference for a springboard/sanity check.

Vanguard hops are another variety that should be available in your local homebrew shop.  This profile is presented to provide more information for this “hop shortage” hop.

Origin: USA - Released in 1982

Aroma:  Slightly flowery, mild.  Similar to Hallertau Mittlefruh

Alpha Acid: 5.5 to 6%

Typical Usage: Aroma.  A gentle hop for subtle bitterness, aroma, and flavor.  Probably would be considered “noble”.

Beer Styles:  Use in not-so-overly-malty beers.   Light lagers, Pilsners, Kolsch, Wheat, and Munich Helles.

Yesterday, a few of us got together to do a BJCP-type tasting of the homebrews we have available. Those brews included:

• Kolsch
• American Pale Ale
• American India Pale Ale
• Oatmeal Stout
• Maple Porter

We also had an apple cider that Mike got from a brewer he met on the Brewing KB. It was fermented with wild yeast, crystal clear, and light in color. It was phenomenal.

When we get together to drink beer, usually we are just being social and having a good time. This time, we read about the styles and focused on what we were tasting. We didn’t take notes, but I think we learned a lot because we took the time to really understand the flavors of each sample.

And we had a good time too.

Now, if we can get another bottle of that apple cider.