I am making the velvet rooster clone which will stay in the primary for two weeks and then spend a month in the secondary. At the secondary rack time I am going to add about 1-2% Liefmans Kriek to it though. I definitely want this beer to be nice and clear when its done. Should I cold crash before I add to the secondary or only before bottling? or both?
Thanks
Both. :cheers:
Only before bottling. Yeast continue to improve beer flavor through various metabolic precesses during secondary and cold crashing will halt these…
Seems to me that after two weeks the yeast has done all it is going to do (at least at ale temps), unless it’s a slow weak fermentation.
It uses a trappist yeast. I am guessing that is why it is supposed to stay in the secondary for a month (from the instructions). So does that mean there is an above average amount of activity in the secondary? if so I guess I should only cold crash before bottling?
There really isn’t a right and wrong answer here. All of the fermentation should be completely finished when you transfer to secondary. A secondary is only to clear the beer, which is why I skip it as often as I can and crash in the primary. You may not even need to crash it if you are going to secondary for a month. Short answer your procedure will work fine, but you will have to transfer twice to get to the bottling bucket. :cheers:
Primary for 3-4 weeks, then store cold for a week to drop the yeast and sediment, and then transfer to the bottling bucket where you can add the kriek. A secondary doesn’t add anything other than a transfer to the process.
Other than…
So I agree. Leave it in the primary with all the yeast for 3-4 weeks. Cold crash and then transfer to the bottling bucket.
Why clean and sanitize more equipment.
+1
There’s also a mixture of terms here. “Secondary” fermentation occurs regardless of transfers to different vessels. It is the slower, more stable fermentation that settles in afer high kruesen. A “secondary” fermenter is a transfer to a new vessel to get the beer off the spent yeast and trub. This transfer was once considered necessary, that’s why you see it in some recepie instructions. Most experienced brewers no longer reccomend it for ales as there’s no real benefit and the extra work and risk of infection just insn’t worth it. I also read yeast continue to absorb some off flavor causing compounds after reaching final gravity as they settle in to dormancy. A transfer to “secondary” would prevent this, potentially increasing the off flavors you are presumably trying to avoid. In my experience there’s some pretty sketchy recipie instructions out there. Read them, but take them with a grain of salt and good home brew book with a recent copyright!
