Dropping

[vaudy]

Recently I have been using Saffel Ale Yeast and have not been bothering dropping the brew into another vessel, which prior to using this strain of yeast I did.
The reason for this is two fold:

The ferment is much quicker
The yeast settles well and is very compact at the bottom of the fermenter.

A third reason is that it is one less process to bother with.

What are your views on this, and what is the general fealing with regard to Saffel, which I am impressed with.

Look forward to any replies.

Regards
Vaudy

[mysterio]

Is that SafAle by any chance?

I don't drop, personally. Never tried it so I can't say if my beer would benefit or not. Never read anything to make me think it would help though.

[PieOPah]

I assume that dropping is when you rack during primary fermentation?

I have only ever done this once and it was due to having so much crud (grain, hot/cold break etc.) in my beer that I had no other choice. All I can safely say is that I got all the good beer and left the junk behind (at the cost of about 10 pints).

Other than this the only time I have ever racked to secondary was when I wanted to add some fruit. This is also my biggest failure of a beer (Christmas Pudding) but nothing to do with racking....

I have never had problems with my beers and very rarely issues with clarity.

A wasted step (unless for a specific reason) if I am understanding the meaning correctly

[tubby_shaw]

I always drop my beers into secondary, this is how i was taught
I have never had a beer that I noticed was oxidised, as I take as much care with this step as I do with any other part of my brewing. I like to remove the beer from the trub and crud in the bottom of the primary as If I can see this gunk I don't want my lovely beer sitting on it
After saying that, now that I have a hop strainer in the boiler I have noticed less crud in the primary
I do not have anything to compare against as I have never had the bottle to ferment out and clear my beer in one vessel. Maybe next time I make a session beer I should give it a go

[flytact]

I suppose it depends on what kind of beer I've brewed. If I've made a 5.5-6.5% brew with lots of hops then I like to have it in the secondary for at least 2-3 weeks. This frees up a keg.
If I'm brewing a session beer then right into the keg after a week.

But then again, if it ain't broke...

[Calum]

The "dropping" question was my very first when I joined this forum. The overwhelming reaction was that most people don't bother. As such I haven't bothered for my last 5 brews and don't think the beer has suffered as a result.

However, like Daab, when I bottle the beer I drop into another fermentor. This is done within an hour of bottling and just makes sure the big bits of crap are left in the primary.

[mysterio]

Just to clear something up - I don't 'drop' the beer, which I gather is racking the beer in the middle of active primary fermentation; but I think an extended period in the secondary (or even the bottle or keg) is highly beneficial.

[PieOPah]

However, like Daab, when I bottle the beer I drop into another fermentor. This is done within an hour of bottling and just makes sure the big bits of crap are left in the primary.

I do this when bottling but this is only so that I can get an even mix of my priming sugars.

[vaudy]

I was not very clear with what I meant by 'dropping', I was referring to approx half way through primary fermentation tranferring the wort into another vessel.

Care is taken with regard not encouraging oxidation, and the head should reform after a few hours.
This is the process that I always carried out, however since using Safale yeast (spelt right this time) the fermentation is so quick and the yeast settles well at the bottom of the vessel resulting in me omitting this process.

With the feed back so far I feel that the general consenus is to not bother with this extra process.
However if bottling bear I agree that it is of benefit to allow the bear to mature in a keg for a month prior to bottling.

What are your views with regard Safale yeast, I am pleased with the results since I have been using it.

Looking forward to your replies

Regards
Vaudy

[bitter_dave]

What are your views with regard Safale yeast, I am pleased with the results since I have been using it.

I think Safale is fantastic stuff The beer often comes out of the fermenter pretty clear in my experience and the gunk (scientific term ) is left behind; it doesn't ferment down too low (or too high); and the hop flavour comes through quite nicely.

My points of comparison are somewhat limited though - Gervin, US 56, and Harveys Brewery yeast.

I am surprised on other forums when people go on about dyactyl and butterscotch in relation to S04 - I've only noticed a very slight butterscotch flavour in a beer made with S04 once when the beer was young and this disapeared quite quickly; or perhaps I have a rather dull palette and simply haven't noticed it?