when to transfer to secondary

[glassgiant]

I'm doing a Belgian Wit. It's been in the primary for 5 days. I was about to transfer to secondary, but when I opened it up, it looked like this. If I understand correctly, I don't want to transfer to secondary until the krausen sinks. Is that right?

This is my first attempt with liquid yeast, which I mistreated slightly (bought kit at 9pm, woke up in a panic at 3am, having forgotten to put the yeast in the fridge, but bucket was bubbling when I got back from the long weekend). Also, my basement has been a consistent 17C, 2C under the optimal minimum for this yeast. Aaaaand, I've never actually seen the kausen in any of my previous 3 or 4 batches (anal about introducing bacteria, I guess). So I'm a bit concerned about the whole deal, but not overly.

Thanks in advance,
Shawn

[jeffsmith]

I don't secondary at all unless I'm adding fruit, oak, etc. It's an extra step that really isn't necessary and introduces extra points for infection, possible under attenuation, off flavours, what have you. Giving the beer a decent amount of time on the yeast cake will help clear up an nasty by products of fermentation.

I can't think of any situation that you'd want to rack the beer off the yeast any less than a week after fermentation started.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

My rule is, rack out of primary whenever you get around to kegging/bottling

[Barr]

I started using one fermentation vessel in the spring and its worked out great. No need to rack.

[canuck]

I don't secondary at all unless I'm adding fruit, oak, etc. It's an extra step that really isn't necessary and introduces extra points for infection, possible under attenuation, off flavours, what have you. Giving the beer a decent amount of time on the yeast cake will help clear up an nasty by products of fermentation.

I can't think of any situation that you'd want to rack the beer off the yeast any less than a week after fermentation started.

+1000

Unless you're racking onto fruit, oak, spices, etc there is absolutely no need to rack over onto a secondary........for all of the reasons that Jeff mentioned.

[jtmwhyte]

3 week primary, check gravity, keg or bottle.

[glassgiant]

Don't you get a lot of sediment doing only primary? I did one that way, and had a disturbing amount of sediment come through. Although that might be because it was a very hoppy recipe, and I haven't done a lot of hops in other brews, maybe? Does anyone do a secondary as a matter of course?

[glassgiant]

Oh, and I did want to add some more orange peel, as I don't think I extracted much during the boil.

[dexter]

I don't secondary at all unless I'm adding fruit, oak, etc. It's an extra step that really isn't necessary and introduces extra points for infection, possible under attenuation, off flavours, what have you. Giving the beer a decent amount of time on the yeast cake will help clear up an nasty by products of fermentation.

I can't think of any situation that you'd want to rack the beer off the yeast any less than a week after fermentation started.

+1000

Unless you're racking onto fruit, oak, spices, etc there is absolutely no need to rack over onto a secondary........for all of the reasons that Jeff mentioned.

I tend to rack if Im dry hoping other than that I wait at least 2 weeks before moving.

[canuck]

I don't secondary at all unless I'm adding fruit, oak, etc. It's an extra step that really isn't necessary and introduces extra points for infection, possible under attenuation, off flavours, what have you. Giving the beer a decent amount of time on the yeast cake will help clear up an nasty by products of fermentation.

I can't think of any situation that you'd want to rack the beer off the yeast any less than a week after fermentation started.

+1000

Unless you're racking onto fruit, oak, spices, etc there is absolutely no need to rack over onto a secondary........for all of the reasons that Jeff mentioned.

I tend to rack if Im dry hoping other than that I wait at least 2 weeks before moving.

I dry hop in the primary 100% of the time without any issues. But at the end of the day, you can brew 100 different ways and still brew excellent beer. Stick to whatever works for you.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

So I guess to answer your original question,I would not rack til the krausen drops

[chalmers]

Don't you get a lot of sediment doing only primary? I did one that way, and had a disturbing amount of sediment come through. Although that might be because it was a very hoppy recipe, and I haven't done a lot of hops in other brews, maybe? Does anyone do a secondary as a matter of course?

The extra time the guys mentioned will do wonders to remove stuff in suspension, as most of the yeast and protein globs will fall to the bottom.

It could be that the krausen has hardened at the top of the primary, and will never fall, but it's too early to tell. Leave it another week or two or three (my vote is three), check it, check gravity, then bottle it. When transferring, try not to move the racking cane around a lot on the bottom of the bucket, so you're not stirring up a ton of crud.

I'm not sure if the krausen size is related to the amount of hops in the recipe, that's some next level stuff, beyond my pay grade.

I don't secondary.

[glassgiant]

Thanks everyone. I'll rack this one in another week or two and be gentle with the cane (definitely been heavy-handed in the past) so I can add my extra orange. And I'll try cutting out the secondary again for the next batch.