To rack or not to rack, when bottling the home brew is the question,.

[Ralph]

I have a question about racking off beer to mature in a secondary fermenter as I have seen this talked about a bit in various forums/books. I am currently BIAB and fermenting mostly ales at the moment (APA, AAA, Irish Red, Bitter) in the standard food grade HDPE, fermenters or 20 L cubes. The initial part of the ferment where the airlock bubbles away furiously is usually be done in 3 to 4 days. From what I have read it would appear that leaving the beer on the trub for up to 2 weeks should not really have any detrimental effect on the beer flavour. Is this correct?

 

I have seen talk of racking beer to a secondary fermenter and leaving for another couple of weeks to mature. I was just wondering if this would actually achieve much if I am just going to bottle the beer anyway?? Adding priming sugars to the beer in the bottle means there will be another fermentation going on in the bottle, which should be left for a few weeks to mature anyway. 

 

Transferring the beer to secondary (which will introduce oxygen) and then leaving the beer sitting in a HDPE secondary which is oxygen permeable would seem to expose my beer to a lot more oxidation than simply bottling from the primary after 2 weeks. Is there any reason I should be racking to secondary if I am just going to bottle? Is the maturation that goes on in a bottle that different to the maturation that would be happening in a secondary fermenter?

 

 

[newbilong]

longer than two weeks on the yeast in primary and you markedly start to increase risk of autolysis characters in the beer.  By letting the yeast mostly floc out in primary and racking to secondary after a week to two weeks, you can let the beer rest in secondary for longer with minimal risk of autolysis characters in the final product.  

 

maturation characteristics -- if you want uniform characteristics in your beer then you need to mature in cask or whatever secondary container you have.  so yes, all those things that Dougal refers to below and more (e.g. lacto, slow oxidation, etc. etc.). 

[Dougal]

Hi newbilong, 

That's what I was getting at in my original reply to Ralph. Provided you start with healthy yeast (viable and enough cells), the theory is that the risk of autolysis isn't an issue over a normal 2-4 week fermentation period. There's been several discussions about this in the Brew Strong podcasts with John Palmer and JZ. Supposedly when yeast quality control wasn't formerly as good, autolysis was a genuine problem.

My experience with a beer that sat for 5 weeks in primary through the February earthquake seemed to bear this out. Interested to hear others take on this though.   

[newbilong]

ah, interesting -- i'm setting up a yeast lab, so maybe when i have full control over yeast help i can skip the secondary.

[Dougal]

Yeah, I remember when I first started out and experienced brewers said "throw away the crap yeast that comes with your beer kit and buy some Safale". I'm no microbiologist, but I'm sure that the low viability from poor storage and QC on elderly kit yeasts would enhance the risk of autolysis.

[Chris]

Thanks, I can see what you're saying and have done the same myself for years, but this thread has made me wonder about the autolysis risk. Saw this which was interesting too.

 

Would you not get uniform maturation characteristics by leaving in the primary for 3 weeks, instead of racking after a week and leaving in secondary for 2?

 

I've never had a problem with racking from a hygiene or oxidation point of view so that doesn't worry me, but it would be nice not to have to spend the time doing so if it's not absolutley necessary. I could put that time towards making another brew!

[newbilong]

"Would you not get uniform maturation characteristics by leaving in the primary for 3 weeks, instead of racking after a week and leaving in secondary for 2?"

 

it really depends what you're trying to do with your beer and how long you need it to sit.  there are so many ways to make beer and so many beers to make -- there aren't any rules in this game.  some styles take 10 years from picking the hops to filling the bottle.

[Chris]

"there aren't any rules in this game."

 

You can say that again! I guess I'll experiment with the recipes I make and see if it does make any appreciable difference.

[Dougal]

Oops! Should have looked at your link, it's all there.

[Ralph]

My other problem with secondary at the moment is I dont have somewhere warm to keep it. Shed temperature in Chch at the moment is probably around 10 deg... Unless I am doing a lager I am not sure that i will achieve much by leaving in a secondary at that temperature?? Maybe in the summertime I could be achieving something?

[newbilong]

'secondary' is really a misnomer in most cases.  when i use a secondary i'm trying to clarify, mature and settle the beer rather than referment it.  almost all of the fermentation's already done.  i use it more as a conditioning or bright beer tank, although i'm not trying to carbonate the beer if it's going into bottle where it will be refermented.  for these reasons, 10 degrees is better than 20 degrees.

[Chris]

This does confuse me. In my mind secondary fermentation (aka conditioning or maturing) happens when the beer is primed (or krausened if you want to be fancy) and bottled, i.e. bottle conditioning. Using a secondary fermenter is just a second stage of primary fermentation.

 

Am I right in thinking this?

[Quinn]

Hey Ralph I know what you mean by the chch temps not good for brews.

However I have been lucky enough to use the spare room.

Now I have put a dark ale in my rotokeg  and have chucked my primary into my fridge to clear up hopefully.

I wont be able to rack into secondry for bottling as I am a tap down.so after a few days I will mix in some priming sugar and hope My bottles wont be full off trub. have a good week guys

:)