Comments on: Time in Secondary http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264 Resource for home brewers created by home brewers. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:29:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mike http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1825 Mike Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:49:12 +0000 http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1825 Before I started kegging I used to move beer into secondary just to have a place to store it if I wasn't going to bottle for a while. I can remember leaving beers in secondary for 4-5 months just because I was lazy and didn't get around to bottling. They always carbed up in the bottle too. Sometimes just took a little longer. So I can see your point (Aaron), sometimes you can do secondary just to have something to do with the beer. Before I started kegging I used to move beer into secondary just to have a place to store it if I wasn’t going to bottle for a while. I can remember leaving beers in secondary for 4-5 months just because I was lazy and didn’t get around to bottling. They always carbed up in the bottle too. Sometimes just took a little longer.
So I can see your point (Aaron), sometimes you can do secondary just to have something to do with the beer.

]]> By: Jesse Seymour http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1824 Jesse Seymour Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:43:10 +0000 http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1824 I generally don't use a secondary at all but that is mostly because I only have one fermenter and one bottling bucket. What I have done in the past was rack my beer to the bottling bucket, clean out the fermenter and re-sanitize it and move the beer back to the original fermenter. This has been a big pain so for my last few batches I skipped the secondary all together without any noticeable difference. About the only difference was that I had to leave the beer bottle condition for an extra two weeks but to me that is no big deal. The short story of my comment is that if you don't have a secondary, don't worry - it's not going to ruin your beer to go straight from primary to bottles/keg and let the beer mature there. I generally don’t use a secondary at all but that is mostly because I only have one fermenter and one bottling bucket. What I have done in the past was rack my beer to the bottling bucket, clean out the fermenter and re-sanitize it and move the beer back to the original fermenter.

This has been a big pain so for my last few batches I skipped the secondary all together without any noticeable difference. About the only difference was that I had to leave the beer bottle condition for an extra two weeks but to me that is no big deal.

The short story of my comment is that if you don’t have a secondary, don’t worry – it’s not going to ruin your beer to go straight from primary to bottles/keg and let the beer mature there.

]]> By: Aaron http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1823 Aaron Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:42:54 +0000 http://www.brew-dudes.com/time-in-secondary/264#comment-1823 Even 6 months might not be too long for the yeast. I've seen ciders that go that long and can still be bottle conditioned from the original yeast. I like to do a secondary because it keeps me involved with my beer while it's fermenting. It's kind of boring to set it and forget it, and I don't get to do enough brewing to be active all the time, so I like to rack to secondary just to give me something to do with the beer. Even 6 months might not be too long for the yeast. I’ve seen ciders that go that long and can still be bottle conditioned from the original yeast.

I like to do a secondary because it keeps me involved with my beer while it’s fermenting. It’s kind of boring to set it and forget it, and I don’t get to do enough brewing to be active all the time, so I like to rack to secondary just to give me something to do with the beer.

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