Another Secondary or Not Post

I've been brewing for several years but only a few beers a year. I always use a secondary but I keep reading that it's not necessary to secondary on lighter beers. Couple week ago I brewed a pumpkin ale and after a week it was still pretty cloudy. I transferred it to the secondary and in a day it cleared tremendously (I've experienced this on other brews too). Now this may have cleared up by the time it hit the glass but will the secondary improve the clarity of your brews?

Thanks,

Mike

From my experience, yes, even short times in secondary will aid clarity, esp. in something like a pumpkin.  The decision becomes is that "speed to clarity" worth the hassle and the delay in drinking? 

We're strictly talking ales here, since lagers are lagered by definition.  Kegging, you're getting the entire beer carbonated in a week and chilled to 45F, so stuff will drop and you can scrap the first pint or so, and be enjoying your beer before you would otherwise get out secondary.  And few ale styles demand brilliant clarity, so if clarity is satisfactory, why wait for outstanding? 

The other big benefit to skipping secondary is that it means (presumably) more time in primary, and that may help some new brewers that tend to rush things and actually harm the beer by racking too soon.  If I were to make a blanket recommendation to new brewers it would be spend 3-4 weeks in primary and skip secondary.  All beers would improve, compared to some kits that say four or seven days in primary, then transfer. 

I always secondary, but I also generally brew pretty stout beers.  In my experience the only way to get rid of the alcohol "bite" is aging.  Also, I have found that everything blends SOOO much better at about 6 months from brewing.  One of the cleanest beers I ever made was when I had brewed and racked and a gentleman at work had heart issues.  I worked from thanksgiving through february pretty much every day.  That beer sat patiently waiting for me to bottle.  I bottled and it took almost 6 weeks to fully carbonate, but wow was it clear.

Aging as a batch seems to make a slight difference also IMO.