I’ve asked this before but couldn’t locate the post. I’m brewing an Irish red ale and thought I would transfer from primary to a keg and do the secondary in that and then force carb and draw off any sediment in the first few pours. Anyone else do this?
By secondary what are we talking about? Are you introducing any new fermentable or dry hopping? Or is it just for final stages of clearing out?
I usually just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks until clear. Then keg / Chill / Carb. But I usually could keg after 2 weeks.
Not being a fan of racking the beer unless I have to, I recently dry-hopped in my keg, then removed the hop bag, crashed, hit it with gelatin and served, with your idea in mind, sediment coming out in the first few pours.
The problem with that is, not all of the sediment comes out in the first few pours (at least for me). If you have the ability, crash it in the primary and gel if you like, THEN rack to keg and serve. Skip the ‘secondary’. You don’t need to transfer it more than once.
I’ve done this before, but just to naturally carb my beer. I transfer it from carboy to keg with about 6 SG points or so to go before it hits final gravity (for a relatively standard 2.6 co2 level). I even made a spunding valve to be able to more precisely control the carb level. This will naturally carbonate the beer for you, but makes it harder to clear the beer. You may need to use gelatin after that.
