So far all of our brewing plans have assumed two stages of fermentation - primary in a bucket and secondary in a pressure barrel.
Does anyone here put their kit beer through three stages of fermentation - i.e. a week in primary, a week in secondary then transferred to primed bottles for a third stage and conditioning?
Tertiary fermentation in bottles?
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PieOPah
It all depends on what I am brewing.
Currently I have a beer that I racked to secondary about 10 days ago. This was racked on top of cherries. In the next few days (well, whenever I actually have any time - seems a rare commodity theses days) I will be transferring to bottles. This could be considered Tertiary fermentation.
Personally, if I am transferring to a vessel and priming that vessel I don't consider it a stage of fermentation, rather the maturing stage.....
Some people (mainly the Americans) will have numerous fermentation stages, particularly for the bigger beers. I think that the main reason for this is to get it off the yeast cake.
I personally don't see any reason for anything other than primary - unless there is a specific reason (such as adding extra ingredients).
Of course, if you are making something like a mead, then since this is going to be fermenting over a number of months then you want to get it off the yeast so transferring a few times is a good idea.
Currently I have a beer that I racked to secondary about 10 days ago. This was racked on top of cherries. In the next few days (well, whenever I actually have any time - seems a rare commodity theses days) I will be transferring to bottles. This could be considered Tertiary fermentation.
Personally, if I am transferring to a vessel and priming that vessel I don't consider it a stage of fermentation, rather the maturing stage.....
Some people (mainly the Americans) will have numerous fermentation stages, particularly for the bigger beers. I think that the main reason for this is to get it off the yeast cake.
I personally don't see any reason for anything other than primary - unless there is a specific reason (such as adding extra ingredients).
Of course, if you are making something like a mead, then since this is going to be fermenting over a number of months then you want to get it off the yeast so transferring a few times is a good idea.
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Stonch
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PieOPah
It was a very basic beer. I think I had 4kg of marris and 250g of crystal. Can't quite remember the hops I used but around 50 IBU (iirc).
After this had fermented down to 1.007 I added 1.5kg of cherries to a secondary fermenter (the cherries had been fresh little under a year ago - I had removed the stones and frozen).
The beer has a great taste and nice red colour, unfortunately there is little to no taste or aroma from the cherries themselves. I had wanted subtle but I also wanted detectable. It is likely the source of the cherries rather than the amount.
Still, it has increased the ABV and hasn't ruined the flavour. I look forward to bottling this one and serving it to a few mates during a summer BBQ
Another option to adding fruit is to add fruit extract. I would probably do this next time.
After this had fermented down to 1.007 I added 1.5kg of cherries to a secondary fermenter (the cherries had been fresh little under a year ago - I had removed the stones and frozen).
The beer has a great taste and nice red colour, unfortunately there is little to no taste or aroma from the cherries themselves. I had wanted subtle but I also wanted detectable. It is likely the source of the cherries rather than the amount.
Still, it has increased the ABV and hasn't ruined the flavour. I look forward to bottling this one and serving it to a few mates during a summer BBQ
Another option to adding fruit is to add fruit extract. I would probably do this next time.