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Secondary

ECarroll

Brewer
Joined
Feb 8, 2010
Messages
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Location
Moehrendorf, Germany
Hi

I have a queston, i have been looking around on the board and i see a lot of  you talking about secondary Fermation, why do some of you do this, i mean what reasons? Over here in Germany we Homebrewers only do I Fermation and if you are like me always brewing Lagers, Pils, Export types of beers then it takes up to 7-10 days at around 46F and open Fermation, never have i had any problems with my beers. I just was wandering about the  2nd fermation and way?

Good brew
ECarroll
 
This may be a language/translation issue.  After your primary for lagers, do you "lager" them at 1C for 4-6 weeks to clarify them and drop the yeast to the bottom?  We would call that a type of secondary fermentation.  For ales, many people don't transfer the beer again until they keg or bottle it.  Some of us do transfer it to a secondary vessel before packaging it.  Reasons might include clarity, flavor conditioning for a high-gravity or complex beer, lack of space in the primary fermenting chest freezer, etc. 

"Secondary fermentation" is a loose term that could mean any type of additional settling time for the beer to clarify and/or improve its flavors.  The one constant would be that the beer has been transferred off the primary yeast. 
 
    Sometimes we put the beer in a secondary vessel to enhance certain flavors, like dry-hopping for an IPA,
or adding some vanilla beans, or bourbon to a stout.
By doing this, racking to a secondary vessel, it really helps to blend flavors together by giving it some added time to mingle together.
After such time, then we would bottle or keg.
stevemwazup
 
because in the United States we do everything right and never make mistakes.


I thought every one knew that. 
 
Do anyone have experienced any bad yeast flavours if skipping the secondary? The last brews I just kept it in primary for like 2-3 weeks, and then bottled straight from the fermenter. I have started to put pieces of sugar in the bottles for carbonation. I skip several steps with the same result in taste and aroma. Ofcourse, the beer is not totally clear when cold, but I dont mind. Maybe after 6-8 more weeks beside the 4 weeks to carbonation, they get clear.
But I can just boil 10 litres at a time, so my batches are never that old.
 
BYO magizine did a recent article on leaving wort in the primary for extended time. The result was that most people preferred the beer left on the primary for extended times (4-5-6) weeks. It was more complex. The Yeast flavors were non-existant. I still (mostly) use a secondary but only to help in clearing the beer or to dry hop.
 
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