Cold secondary

Yeast & Fermentation
1

Hi all,

I have a German Alt all-grain in the primary (temp controlled SS brewtech brew bucket) now fermenting at 57F with Imperial G02 Kaiser yeast - I noticed on the instructions it states to “cold secondary” for a couple of weeks. So I’m looking for opinions on this:

  1. I usually skip the secondary and bottle from the primary after 3-4 weeks just to avoid potential for unnecessary oxygenation and contamination in the transfer, and since clarification seems to go okay by just extending the time in primary and the dead yeast don’t seem to impart any off flavors if kept in there under four weeks, so any thoughts about just skipping the secondary and extending the time in primary?

  2. If I shift to a secondary and keep it cold - should I keep it within the active range of the yeast (56-65F)? Does it really need to be kept cold - can I just keep at room temp for 4-6 weeks?

  3. If I drop the secondary to refrigerator temp (39F) and the yeast crashes out, do I need to add yeast when bottling for carbonation?

Thanks!

Ian

2

Just another question… Bottling or kegging?
I just saw the answer… Bottling… You can cold crash before bottling… You won’t remove all the yeast…
Sneezles61

3

Since you usually skip secondary go ahead and cold crash it in your SS bucket for a couple weeks. This will get the bulk of yeast to drop out. CAREFULLY move your fermenter to rack it to your bottling bucket about an hour before racking. This will allow any sediment that churned time to resettle. Bottle as normal and allow to carbonate. Then pop them in the fridge again for your extended lagering.

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