Is transfering to secondary necessary?

[WhiteSoxFan]

3 weeks primary, no secondary for me.

[whiteManCanHop]

im with the others...
i usually will primary for 10-14 days and then i crash cool for another 5 days or so and then to the keg. clears them right up.

[BlueLoon]

I have done both and had great results with either. Even fruit beers where I added the fruit at flame out. Most of the time it was because I did not have the time or I was doing a 1 gallon batch. However after hearing how many people, and Jamil, just use one stage. I'm going to do more single stages unless I have to.

[Neuron_Theory]

I have always done a secondary until my last brew. The last one was a wheat and I racked to the bottling bucket from the primary. I popped one open last week to see how it was carbonating and that seemed to be going just fine, but I noticed more yeast sediment in the bottle than I would have liked. I'm hoping that will help with taking up some of the acetylaldehyde that I tasted though. I think I pop another tonight and see how things are progressing.

[BDawg]

Crash cooling and Gelatin gets the beers just as clear with less chance of infection. Which is the main reason I wouldn't secondary. Of course I guess I have somewhat of a secondary since I keg.

(Not picking on you Brandon...) Just that I think the risk of infection with respect to having a secondary is way overblown. If you are confident in your sanitation procedures, then the risk of infection is minimal. Not non-existent, but minimal to the point that I AM willing to risk the small chance of infection in exchange for a clearer beer with much less lees in the keg. I know you've been brewing way long enough that your procedures aren't hit and miss, either. All I'm saying is that I think the "risk of infection" may be valid advice for a brand newbie, but once you get couple successful batches under your belt, the risk goes way down.

[Maine-iac]

Is it necessary? No, you can make find beer (minus the exception listed above). There is also a decent argument to be made about not risking contamination any more than is necessary.

With that said, I also usually do a secondary for all of my beers. So far I have had no issues with contamination and it makes my beers much clearer.

[linuxelf]

I don't secondary either, unless it's something that's going to sit for a LONG time. For me, though, it's more to avoid contact with O2. I guess if you're purging your secondary with CO2 prior to transferring, though, a secondary won't hurt.

[beerocracy]

Crash cooling and Gelatin gets the beers just as clear with less chance of infection. Which is the main reason I wouldn't secondary. Of course I guess I have somewhat of a secondary since I keg.

(Not picking on you Brandon...) Just that I think the risk of infection with respect to having a secondary is way overblown. If you are confident in your sanitation procedures, then the risk of infection is minimal. Not non-existent, but minimal to the point that I AM willing to risk the small chance of infection in exchange for a clearer beer with much less lees in the keg. I know you've been brewing way long enough that your procedures aren't hit and miss, either. All I'm saying is that I think the "risk of infection" may be valid advice for a brand newbie, but once you get couple successful batches under your belt, the risk goes way down.

I thought the main reason Jamil prefers not to transfer is the likelihood of oxygen pickup during racking. The would especially be true for someone who doesn't keg and therefore cannot purge the secondary vessel before the transfer.

Personally, I let it go 2-3 weeks in the fermenter, crash cool it for 24 hours to drop most of the yeast and then transfer to a purged keg. If I want a particularly clear beer I use a keg that I cut the dip tube on for an additional 1-2 weeks clarification in my kegerator (yes, I said cut the dip tube) and then jumper from one keg to another to leave the sediment behind.