Racking beer into secondary fermentation (Video)

When I first started brewing I always racked to secondary fermentation.  Many have said that it is not necessary, and now I often just keep it all in the primary carboy throughout the fermentation process.  I keep it there for 3 week and then rack to the bottling bucket and bottle.

Before I go further, check out this video, which does a nice job of walking through the racking process, because there are times when racking may be the right thing to do.



Here are the three reasons that I would use a secondary fermentation vessel.

1. If the beer will be aged in the carboy before bottling.  A barleywine, for example, will be best after aging.  Also, the addition of dry hops or oak chips will work well in secondary.

2. If I plan to "clean" and cultivate the yeast for another batch.  Racking the beer off will allow access to the yeast bed at the bottom of the carboy for this purpose.

3. If another batch of wort is ready to go and dump into the original carboy on top of the existing yeast bed.  It's been expressed that this works well.  I've not done it, and most of the time it doesn't fit in with my brewing schedule and practices.  But, this method will present the new wort with plenty of yeast.


Some downsides to racking into a secondary vessel are as follows.

1. Increased potential for oxygen exposure.  The only time oxygen is a good thing is just before pitching the yeast.

2. Increased potential for infection.  This risk can be considerably low with proper sanitation procedures.

To use a secondary or not is a topic talked about frequently in online forums.  In a nutshell, keeping the beer in primary only will work fine.  Unless there is a purposeful intention, forgo the use of a secondary.

Fermentation temperature for ales

So you have temperature control on a spare refrigerator.  With it set to 68 deg, you should be fine for ale fermentation temps, right?  Maybe not.  The temps in active fermenting wort can be quite higher than the surrounding room temperature, which means you may need to compensate with the temp control to maintain proper and consistent temps.

With that in mind I've kept my temp set to 64 deg, and recently realized the temp inside an active carboy was still at around 75 degrees (which is warmer than preferred).  I only know this because I splurged the other day and purchased a $3 (something like that) thermometer strip, which will show the temp of the liquid inside the carboy.  A little knowledge can be a powerful thing.  It has already shown to be a good tool (plus it looks cool).

Why does temperature matter?  Different temps will have an effect on the taste of the beer.  Higher temps will result in more esters in the beer (and quicker fermentation).  Too cold, and an ale will ferment slowly as well.  Each style and yeast strand will have the ideal temps for fermenting, and the more you are able to control the environment, the better beers you will brew.

In Florida, basements with consistent cool temps are rare, meaning either keep it in a closet (most likely too warm) or implement another form of temp control, which is what I've done.  Your local Homebrew Shop should have a solution, probably something similar or the same to this.

Close to an explosive situation

The pressure obviously built up overnight as fermentation commenced.  I sure didn't expect to find this with 2 gallons of headspace in the 5 gallon carboy (that is a 3 gallon batch for those not good at math).  I guess the yeast was healthy and obviously began with an active roar.

The airlock had filled with krausen, blocking it up.  I've heard of this happening but this is a first to experience it.  I pulled it out of the top stopper to an audible release of pressure.  I can only imagine what a few more hours (or minutes) could have done.  Boom, with krausen and wort splashing all over the place.

Lesson of the day:  Use a blow-off tube for initial and active fermentation.  Don't assume you have enough head space.

Here is the photo of it now happily fermenting away.

Fermentation video

Garrett Oliver talks about How Fermentation Works.  Interesting.

Check it out!

Planning Ahead With Oak Chips

This photo above shows 1/2 ounce of oak chips soaking in 1 ounce of Jamaican Rum.  It can set in this state for a few weeks, months or probably years.  I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it, but it will probably become part of a porter.  I have a few 1 gallon carboys which work well with little experiments like this.

The rum will sanitize and add flavor to the chips.  The combination of the two will bring flavors reminiscent of oak barrel aging to the beer.  The entire contents, rum and all, can go into the beer usually during secondary fermentation. 

I've seen stouts and other dark beers aged in oak.  What other beer styles go well with oak aging?

Gravity on my Saison

My first all grain beer is a Saison, and it has been in primary for 9 days now.  OG was (ugh, I just realized I didn't write down the OG)...  Let's go with 1.058.  I was aiming for 1.060, but I remember being a bit shy of the target.  On day 4 I added .5lb of cane sugar, which should have added .004 to the gravity at the 3.5 gallons.  So, if I'm correct the effective gravity of the beer should be 1.062, which isn't to bad, actually.

Today's gravity read 1.012.  According to BJCP, the FG for a Saison should be between 1.002-1.012.  My 1.012 doesn't seem dry enough yet.  The course of action will be to wait until the weekend, day 14 in the fermentor, and check again.  If not lower, I have some Wyeast 1056 in the refrigerator, which I could add to it. 

Carboy in the Dark Closet

I would normally rack to secondary, and this one calls for dry hops too.  The only problem is that all my other vessels are being used lagering a Maibock.  I may have to keep this in primary for the duration.

With the lager in the spare refrigerator, the Saison is sitting happily in the closet, in the 79 degree house.  I'm told the Belgian styles will handle the warmer temperatures more.