Bajaedition said:
Tom
I do not agree about secondary fermentation
I like to get my Ales off of the trub about 4days and my Lagers after about 10 days, however I like to keep my Ales going another week and lager about 2 weeks before I hit my target final.
Getting it off the trub of primary makes for a cleaner beer. IMO
Before I say any more, I don't really care what way you care to manage your beer. I don't really try to TELL anyone how THEY should manage their process. I do try and ensure that the information presented here is factual and based on the Science of Brewing. So, you are welcome to use whatever processes you are happy with. It's your beer, and the only thing that really matters is, "Are you happy with it."
That said,
the science does not support your process as being the ideal process. It adds risk to degrading the beer for various reasons, and it does not improve the beer in any way. At best, it is simply an unnecessary step. At worst, it introduces Oxygen (and the resultant staling), and wild yeast or baterial infection.
Primary Duration
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Even if you choose to use a "secondary", the primary time that you are quoting is too short. For the BEST results, beer should not be moved from the primary until the fermentation process is 100% complete (unless you are actually performing a second FERMENTATION with another microbial agent, or additional ingredient). Phillm quotes the ideal method for managing primary fermentation---wait until gravity readings stabilize+2 days. At that point, all sugars have been consumed and all byproducts such as diacetyl and actaldehyde have also been consumed. That is generally around the 7-10 day mark.
By moving the beer before this point, you reduce the total yeast colony available to continue fermentation by well over 50% (except for some weizen strains), and can be as high as 90% for some highly flocculant strains. This forces an extended secondary fermentation time, because now you have less yeast to do the work.
You may be "happy" with the results, but it is not OPTIMAL.
Sanitation
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Sanitation is not a 100% kill of all bacteria. That is called sterilization. Since sanitation is not 100% kill, that means that when you transfer you ARE exposing your beer to a new bacterial load. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. In general sanitary is good enough. But, "in general" does not mean "always". There will always be a RISK. There is also the risk that on any given day, your sanitation may not be as good as it should be. you forget to sanitize the transfer tube, or there is an air bubble that prevents some pocket from getting hit with star-san...whatever. Every transfer is another change for a mistake.
JZ won multiple Ninkazi awards (and more competitions than anyone else, ever) and never used a secondary. If the step were
NECESSARY to make the best beer possible, this statement could not be made.
John Palmer addresses the O2/autolysis question better than I can. In short, there's no REASON to transfer off the trub, so soon. the yeast are NOT going to die and create any off flavors in the time frames we are talking about.
Source: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSIONID=ee8afe3e772592026c22f3e7befa7460&topic=15108.msg191642#msg191642
When and why would you need to use a secondary fermenter? First some background – I used to recommend racking a beer to a secondary fermenter. My recommendation was based on the premise that (20 years ago) larger (higher gravity) beers took longer to ferment completely, and that getting the beer off the yeast reduced the risk of yeast autolysis (ie., meaty or rubbery off-flavors) and it allowed more time for flocculation and clarification, reducing the amount of yeast and trub carryover to the bottle. Twenty years ago, a homebrewed beer typically had better flavor, or perhaps less risk of off-flavors, if it was racked off the trub and clarified before bottling. Today that is not the case.
The risk inherent to any beer transfer, whether it is fermenter-to-fermenter or fermenter-to-bottles, is oxidation and staling. Any oxygen exposure after fermentation will lead to staling, and the more exposure, and the warmer the storage temperature, the faster the beer will go stale.
Racking to a secondary fermenter used to be recommended because staling was simply a fact of life – like death and taxes. But the risk of autolysis was real and worth avoiding – like cholera. In other words, you know you are going to die eventually, but death by cholera is worth avoiding.
But then modern medicine appeared, or in our case, better yeast and better yeast-handling information. Suddenly, death by autolysis is rare for a beer because of two factors: the freshness and health of the yeast being pitched has drastically improved, and proper pitching rates are better understood. The yeast no longer drop dead and burst like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life when fermentation is complete – they are able to hibernate and wait for the next fermentation to come around. The beer has time to clarify in the primary fermenter without generating off-flavors. With autolysis no longer a concern, staling becomes the main problem. The shelf life of a beer can be greatly enhanced by avoiding oxygen exposure and storing the beer cold (after it has had time to carbonate).
Therefore I, and Jamil and White Labs and Wyeast Labs, do not recommend racking to a secondary fermenter for ANY ale, except when conducting an actual second fermentation, such as adding fruit or souring. Racking to prevent autolysis is not necessary, and therefore the risk of oxidation is completely avoidable. Even lagers do not require racking to a second fermenter before lagering. With the right pitching rate, using fresh healthy yeast, and proper aeration of the wort prior to pitching, the fermentation of the beer will be complete within 3-8 days (bigger = longer). This time period includes the secondary or conditioning phase of fermentation when the yeast clean up acetaldehyde and diacetyl. The real purpose of lagering a beer is to use the colder temperatures to encourage the yeast to flocculate and promote the precipitation and sedimentation of microparticles and haze.
So, the new rule of thumb: don’t rack a beer to a secondary, ever, unless you are going to conduct a secondary fermentation.