primary to secondary timing

[Dmac08]

I personally never do a secondary unless, as previously mentioned, you are adding something. There is more of a chance of infection. I have left beers in the primary (buckets) for as long as 5 weeks and did not notice any off flavors.

[Mylo]

I think you will find the majority of the BNers have been freed from the "you must do a secondary" shackles.

Jamil had a dream....


Mylo

[ziggy]

I think it is easier to get more stuff to settle out when you transfer from primary to secondary. I always pull my buckets out of the closet and carry them to the kitchen which stirs up some of the sediment. The "secondary" always has less sediment to stir up. I use buckets for primary and carboys for secondary and it's nice to see the beer clarifying through the clear carboy.

[BDawg]

One thing I wondered about. Doc says he never does a secondary any more, but he'll rack to a corny to carbonate, then re-rack to another one (either filtering or not) on the way over.

Sounds like a stainless steel secondary to me. Anyone else have any thoughts about this? What am I missing?

[oneal66]

What Doc is doing isn't technically a secondary, it's a bright tank. Like bug said earlier the only way to truly have a secondary fermentation is to add more fermentables (fruit, priming sugar, etc.) Using a secondary vessel to clarify the beer is basically the same thing as a bright tank.

[beerocracy]

Can't we all just strike the term secondary conditioning from our vocabulary? It just seems to confuse more people than it enlightens.

Okay boys and girls, the word of the day is conditioning. Yeast will do it no matter what vessel it is in.