Secondary Fermentation.

[Mr T]

Afternoon all!

I'm seven days into brewing my first ever batch, it's the Cooper's lager kit. The chaps in the local homebrew shop and the kit instructios gave me all the "basic" information i needed to get going. The bit i'm stuck on is the secondary fermentation. I was told to brew in the primary for up to ten days, checking the readings with hydro. After i had two readings the same over a 24 hour period i was then told to start the secondary.

Should i use a syphon to transfer and try not to disturb the sediment at the bottom, and do i need to add anything else like more sugar to the secondary? Sorry guys this is probably all basic stuff but i have no instructions on this part of the process.

Andy :drink:

 

[tubby_shaw]

For your first batch I will recommend that you bottle or keg it straight from the primary as soon as you have two stable gravity readings 24 hours apart, or it has been in the fermenter (primary) for ten days whichever is the latter.
If you are bottling add table sugar at the rate of 1/2 a level teaspoon per 500ml bottle, or add 50g of sugar to your keg if kegging.
Use a syphon to transfer your beer in either case and try not to disturb the sediment or splash the beer about during the syphoning.
Cap your bottles or seal your keg and leave somewhere at a temperature of 20C or so for a week or two then store in the cool for two weeks, then sample :drink:

 

[Mr T]

Thanks for that, that was always my intention so was a little surprised when it was suggested to use a secondary? The advice I got was to transfer to a secondary for another week and add finnings the day before bottling. I think ill do just as you say on the first instance, in the hope I get something worth drinking, sure ill experiment as the confidence grows! Thanks for the advice, can't wait to get bottling the stuff!

 

[thomasray_uk]

Just like tubby says, keep it simple. Especially with kits and you cant go wrong. Basically; make kit, leave for 7 to10 days, bottle with half a teaspoon of sugar in bottles, leave for 2 weeks...bingo! Job done!

 

[Grumpy Jack]

DITTO! :thumb: