Why we sometimes do a “Secondary” during fermentation. This is 5 gallons of Kölsch. (Yeast: Wyeast 2565)
On the left is how it looked after about 3 weeks in primary fermentation. On the right is how it appears after about 2 weeks in secondary.
Thank you so much for posting that! So many people TOTALLY against secondaries.
I usually don’t go to secondary for simple ales…but this was a clear case of a need.
And it works!
Not sure I understand what you are pointing out here. Is there anyway you could have known that it wouldn’t have looked like the second picture after 5 weeks in primary and a nice cold crash?
Matt took the words right out of my keyboard… maybe if you had brewed 10 gallons and left 5 in the primary for 5 weeks, racking the other 5 to a secondary as you did this one…then you may have made a point.
Not saying you’re wrong just that you can’t be certain it wouldn’t have cleared up left on the cake for 2 more weeks unless you’ve tried it.
[quote=“dannyboy58”]Matt took the words right out of my keyboard… maybe if you had brewed 10 gallons and left 5 in the primary for 5 weeks, racking the other 5 to a secondary as you did this one…then you may have made a point.
Not saying you’re wrong just that you can’t be certain it wouldn’t have cleared up left on the cake for 2 more weeks unless you’ve tried it.[/quote]
What makes you think that it would?
[quote=“Loopie Beer”][quote=“dannyboy58”]Matt took the words right out of my keyboard… maybe if you had brewed 10 gallons and left 5 in the primary for 5 weeks, racking the other 5 to a secondary as you did this one…then you may have made a point.
Not saying you’re wrong just that you can’t be certain it wouldn’t have cleared up left on the cake for 2 more weeks unless you’ve tried it.[/quote]
What makes you think that it would?[/quote]
It certainly might have.
I rarely use a secondary and am not set up for convenient cold-crashing.
Most of my ales clear in primary within 3 weeks of pitching, but when I saw this, I didn’t want to wait and see.
I thought the pictures were interesting and worth sharing.
[quote=“Loopie Beer”][quote=“dannyboy58”]Matt took the words right out of my keyboard… maybe if you had brewed 10 gallons and left 5 in the primary for 5 weeks, racking the other 5 to a secondary as you did this one…then you may have made a point.
Not saying you’re wrong just that you can’t be certain it wouldn’t have cleared up left on the cake for 2 more weeks unless you’ve tried it.[/quote]
What makes you think that it would?[/quote]
I’m not really saying I disagree I just don’t see how this illustrates the point is all. Not trying to be snarky I just want to make sure I’m not missing something. If there were 2 side-by-side comparisons of one racked to secondary and one not I could see it being an illustration for using a secondary. Full disclosure: I secondary most of my beers so I’m not trying to argue against this.
I’m a big fan of secondary, but mostly to get at the yeast for re-use in another batch. The yeast cake in primary always traps a bunch of big bubbles of CO2, though, and once they break free they send up a geyser of yeast into the beer. So there’s always a little churning going on in primary keeping yeast in suspension.
I think your beer cleared so nicely in secondary because you got it off the yeast cake and the suspended yeast could actually settle without anything churning it back into suspension. But that’s just my opinion!
[quote=“porkchop”]…
I think your beer cleared so nicely in secondary because you got it off the yeast cake and the suspended yeast could actually settle without anything churning it back into suspension. But that’s just my opinion![/quote]
I suspect this also. As for the the rest, I didn’t set out to do an experiment, or to prove anything.
Just some pictures of what happened while this beer was on it’s way. Enjoy yours!
(Edit: I can see how the title may have invited those who wish to debate the point. This was not intended.)
No dissent intended on my part either. As always do what you feel works best for you! :cheers:
Kolsh yeast can take forever to flocculate out. It doesn’t surprise me that it looked like that after three weeks. But that does make it a good candidate for a controlled experiment like Mattniak suggested. It would be good to get some more data on that. A few years ago BYO did one of thier crowd brew tests on this, and if I remember right, the results were mixed.
Danny and Matt no worries. I too was playing devil’s advocate because for every point I make for doing a secondary ypu could make one not to. For the record I did some experiments when I first started doing 10gal batches. I noted that my secondary carboys cleared quicker. I also felt it was better to allow it to settle in carboy rather than my keg. Like Danny said… do what works for you.
