secondary fermentation help

[wibbley]

Hi all,

I am a little confussed as to when to rack the beer from the fv. Some books say 2 days, some say 7, some just go straight from the fv to the barrel. Davis Line suggests moving to air locked fv after the sg has dropped to a 1/4 of the starting sg. With all of the yeast head, it is difficult to measure the sg, I don't fancy dipping in a jug to get a sample.

I have always fermented till the yeast head has gone & then transferred to the barrel, however my beer always tastes very yeasty. Have been fermenting a brew for 7 days and still have a good head of yeast. Am tempted to rack into 5 gallon air-locked wine fermenters, leave for a week, add finnings, leave for 2 days then barrel.

Ideas, suggestions and comments much appreciated.

Ta,
Wibbs.

[Whorst]

Your beer shouldn't taste yeasty. What yeast do you primarily use? I just brewed a bitter, starting gravity of 1.037. I pitched a nice sized slurry of WLP-005, aka British Ale Yeast. I will rack this beer probably Tuesday of next week directly into a corny keg, along with priming sugar. Sometimes I use finings, in this case I won't because the WLP-005 is pretty flocculent. Give more details as to what yeast you use, starting gravity, etc.

[wibbley]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your input. I use the yeast that the home brew shop sell. Art of Brewing is my local shop. 'old English Ale Yeast' I think it was.

I have tried moving one brew into a secondary air locked bucket after 6 days. It still had a full head of yeast in the primary but nowt has happened in the secondary. the SG was 1015, starting from 1040. I will leave it for 7 days and then rack into my pressure barrel.

My second brew, I will leave for 10 days in the primary fermentation bucket then put straight into the pressure barrel.

Then wait a few weeks and sample the results.

[Whorst]

This is interesting. I have never been a proponent of aging beers, unless the gravity is is over 1.060. I can have a low gravity bitter ready to drink in 1 week. 3 day fermentation followed by a secondary fermentation in the corny for 4-5 days. I then serve it from the engine. I do pitch a good sized slurry and oxygenate with pure oxygen. Pale Ales with a starting gravity of 1.050 get 5-7 days in the fermenter, then I rack directly to the corny. I usually leave them for 2 weeks in the corny and then drink. Excessively aging beers wastes valuable drinking time. This time is of utmost importance to me. I shall not be denied my time.

[gr_baker]

I've played around with secondaries and fermentation times and I've found that for a 'normal' gravity beer with OG of 1030 to 1050, the head on the fermenting beer collapses into the wort after about 5 days. At this point the beer is clear and drinkable although it's a few degrees above FG. I don't bother with a secondary for these beers and bottle or barrel straight from the FV. As my brewing is a weekend activity I ofeten brew one weekend and bottle the following weekend or the one after that. I don't use priming sugar for beers bottled or barrelled after 1 or 2 weeks.

I use Safale S04 usually. It ferments to a low FG, beds down well and quickly in my beers. This means that longer maturation times don't work well for lower gravity beer for me as there's very little yeast left in the beer to build up carbonation in the barrel or bottle. Even when using priming sugar, a beer that started off at 1040 needs to be bottled within 3 weeks or else it will never get up to pressure.

Stronger beers can be left for a lot longer. I've made beers from the Durden Park book at 1060-1070 and I often leave these in a 5 gallon wine fermenter for 2-3 months before bottling without problems.

For what it's worth, I once made a Light Bitter OG 1032, which I dropped directly onto the yeast slurry left from a big IPA. The fermentation started within hours and FG (1007) had been reached 2 days later.

Russell.