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Can I Skip The Secondary Fermenter?

NaymzJaymz

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I'm at the point where I would normally transfer my beer to a secondary. It's a pretty big IPA that started at 1.098OG. After 3 weeks in the primary, this is where I would normally transfer with C02 into a purged secondary and begin dry hopping for a total of 12 days. Would it be okay to simply keep it in the primary for dry hopping? There is plenty of headspace for the hops. Would I be inviting trouble(off flavors, ect...) by leaving it the yeast cake this long? The hops would fall down and cover the yeast cake in a few days anyway. Just wondering what you all think. Thank you!!!!!
 
Best bet is to take a gravity reading then another a day or two later. If the gravity is stanle,mit's time to transfer. If not keep taking readings every few days until you get teo stable readings then transfer. Note that a lot of folks don't transfer to a secondary and work only in a primary. I'm use secondaries.
 
No need to transfer to secondary. Off flavors from leaving it on the trub aren't going to be a concern for only 12 days of dry hopping. I've left a beer in primary for 6 weeks without any noticeable off flavors. And routinely stay in a primary bucket for 4 weeks. If you're able to purge your primary with CO2 after dry hopping, all the better. If it's a big IPA I'm guessing you'll have a lot of hops to deal with. Especially if you're using leaf hops, getting all your beer out and leaving the junk behind can be problem. A German brewer friend taught me to use a new piece of steel wool wired to the end of a siphon then sanitized. Makes an amazingly effective filter! If you still suck junk into your bottling bucket -- and aren't pressed for time -- cold crash it for three to five days to clarify it.
 
I don't typically secondary any more, but do my dry hopping in the keg so I can't speak to how that will go.  Can't imagine it would be terrible, though.  I'm with Mofo; I've left beer on yeast for quite a while with minimal effects.  If I had to pick one effect it would be reduced head retention, although I can't rule out that this could be due to some other factor (I do 10 gallon batches, so the first 5 gallons usually gets kegged before the second 5 gallons).
 
Mofo said:
No need to transfer to secondary. Off flavors from leaving it on the trub aren't going to be a concern for only 12 days of dry hopping. I've left a beer in primary for 6 weeks without any noticeable off flavors. And routinely stay in a primary bucket for 4 weeks. If you're able to purge your primary with CO2 after dry hopping, all the better. If it's a big IPA I'm guessing you'll have a lot of hops to deal with. Especially if you're using leaf hops, getting all your beer out and leaving the junk behind can be problem. A German brewer friend taught me to use a new piece of steel wool wired to the end of a siphon then sanitized. Makes an amazingly effective filter! If you still suck junk into your bottling bucket -- and aren't pressed for time -- cold crash it for three to five days to clarify it.
If you decide to dry hop in primary after 4 weeks for 10 days will it be ready to false carb as soon as it's kegged?
 
Molly said:
If you decide to dry hop in primary after 4 weeks for 10 days will it be ready to false carb as soon as it's kegged?


If kegging, rather than dry hop in primary, I'd do so in the keg with one of these:

https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php#cornydryhopper
 
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