Secondary or not?

[Bashley]

Hi All

Is it advisable to use a secondary FV after fermentation when using kits? If so, would using the tap on the primary FV be adequate for transfering or would I need a syphon?

Cheers

 

[terrym]

I and others do, many don't. Some won't do it because they fear 'oxidation' or 'infection', although I've not noticed that. And of those that don't, some say the beer still clears anyway, which is the reason I do it, although I think it clears quicker. So in the end its entirely down to personal choice. And I siphon. If you use a tap you probably need to make sure that there is a tube run from the tap to the bottom of the receiving FV so that the beer doesn't splash, or at least thats what I'd do.

 

[Bashley]

OK. Does it make a difference if you're dry hopping?

 

[terrym]

None that I've noticed. I usually rack off when the primary is all but completely finished then have a six day dry hop, with the last two days in a cold place.

 

[ACBEV]

I don't bother with secondary FV for the most part. My exceptions are... High ABV (above 6%), stuck fermentation and beer not clearing. I've only had one stuck fermentation and all my beer clears within a week, so not often. I do tend to keep my brews in primary for 10-14 days.

Oh... and I've never dry hopped! :p

 

[MickDundee]

I don’t because I can’t be arsed. My beers have all cleared apart from my disasterous golden ale.

 

[Bashley]

Thanks for your help Terry and others. One other question if I may. Is this the right stuff to purify my tap water? https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...cts/d/potassium-sulfite-vinoferm-campden-1-kg

I can;t seem to find Campden tablets anywhere in France.

 

[Drunkula]

Thanks for your help Terry and others. One other question if I may. Is this the right stuff to purify my tap water? https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...cts/d/potassium-sulfite-vinoferm-campden-1-kg

I can;t seem to find Campden tablets anywhere in France.

That's the stuff. A kilo! That'll last you a looooong time. You could also use it to make a toxic steriliser with citric acid that I sort of miss from the good old days.

 

[terrym]

If you can't taste or smell chlorine or chloramine in your tap water there is no need to treat it with campden tablets.

 

[Drunkula]

If you can't taste or smell chlorine or chloramine in your tap water there is no need to treat it with campden tablets.

Very good point. I couldn't taste chloramine but through accident trained myself to taste it. I was making the Charlie Talley acidified bleach sanitiser and when syphoning used to sterilise tubing with it, suck the tube and shut the inline tap, put the pipe back in the sanitiser and then let it flow. Through the tiny tastes of the bleach I could pick it out in water really easily. It actually made me realise you can train yourself to taste other flavours, too. I couldn't pick banana out of wheat beers at first and then boom - suddenly it clicked.

 

[Bashley]

We have a brita filter and I can really taste the difference. Don't know what it is though. Just figured I'd err on the side of caution as I can't find any info about our water here.

 

[LarryF]

Primary FV via tap and bottling wand into primed bottles and it clears in a week. I do dry hop but use a mesh bag and a heavy stone.

 

[terrym]

We have a brita filter and I can really taste the difference. Don't know what it is though. Just figured I'd err on the side of caution as I can't find any info about our water here.

If your tap water is not very pleasant to drink (requiring a Brita filter or equivalent) you might consider using cheap bottled water. As I understand it campden tablets only work on the chlorine components in water. If there's other stuff in your untreated tap water the campden tablets probably wont touch it, whereas your Brita filter which uses an ion exchange resin and activated carbon will take out most of the nasties.

 

[Bashley]

I really don't like using bottled water due to the plastic. So maybe I'll just have to by a bigger brita or one you attach to the faucet. For this, my first brew I filtered 80% of the water through a 1/2 L filter. Labour intensive to say the least!

 

[Roger Wilko]

I use a HMA filter that I use for water that goes in my aquarium. It has a sediment filter carbon block and another filter. It takes out chlorine, pesticides etc but doesn’t alter the ph or hardness of water. If it’s good enough for tropical fish it’s good enough to drink.

 

[Ciaran12s]

I've never secondary'd myself. When I started I had the coopers FV with tap. Everything stayed in there throughout and got bottled from there.

I now keep that as a bottling bucket and it gets racked just before bottling. I have noticed that just one transfer to a bottling bucket makes quite a difference to the sediment in the bottle.
Unlike LarryF however, I always batch primed and give it a gentle stir in, so this will have roused some trub which could have been responsible for the bottle sediment.

All my beers get 4 weeks +/- a couple of days so they're well clear by that time anyway.

 

[philt99]

I used to use a secondary when I first started with kits, now I don't. I do think the end product clears quicker like this but its a faff in my opinion, plus I'm lazy.

Two weeks or so in primary at 20 temp, dry hop for 4/5 days, cold crashed at 3 for a couple of days, then straight from tap with tube to keg, force carb, next day get stuck in!

Repeat once all gone. :)

 

[AdeDunn]

I do both, depending on the beer. Beers where I don't mind a bit of haze I don't bother. If I want crystal clarity and less sediment in the bottles I rack to secondary, taking care not to splash and to thoroughly sanitise. With secondary (or more accurately just second vessel, as not much fermentation going on at that point) the beer is crystal clear even before it goes into bottles. No secondary it takes weeks to clear once bottled (even given 2-3 weeks in primary) and leaves a lot more sediment in my bottles.

I can't really cold crash though, so every little helps.

 

[Bashley]

What is 'cold crashing'? This is my first brew. With the youngs kits can you just transfer to a 2nd FV and add priming sugar directly to the 2nd FV? Or do you mix it with boiling water first? I imagine stirring it in is not a good idea as you produce more oxygen. Also, do you let it sit for a while before bottling?

 

[GhostShip]

What is 'cold crashing'? This is my first brew. With the youngs kits can you just transfer to a 2nd FV and add priming sugar directly to the 2nd FV? Or do you mix it with boiling water first? I imagine stirring it in is not a good idea as you produce more oxygen. Also, do you let it sit for a while before bottling?

Cold crashing is done after secondary fermentation has taken place. I've just done a Youngs kit and transferred from the FV to a pressure barrel in which I had first put the priming sugar. All I do then is a very gentle 'swirl' of the barrel just to make sure the sugar is well mixed (wihtout any splashing) and then I bottle straight away - no need to wait. I then leave the bottles for two weeks in the warm and then move them out to the shed for a couple of weeks. That's easy at the moment because it's very cold in the UK at the moment, but it's another reason to not brew in the summer (unless you have a fridge). After two weeks in the cold, bring back to room temperature and try the beer. I'd normally try and leave it for another month or so because beers generally improve, but sometimes temptation takes over!