Rack to Secondary?

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Brandon Kessler
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Rack to Secondary?

So I'd like to get Chaos' take on this. I've tasted many of your beers & have to say a majority of them are impressive.

My question is this: Do most / some of you rack to a secondary vessel during the fermentation process? Or do you just "let it ride" until fermentation is complete in the primary fermenter? 

I have to be honest and say I've never racked to another vessel because of a couple reasons
1) Not sure it's worth the risk of possible contamination and/or oxidation
2) It's 45 minutes on the CTA to get to the brewhouse for me & I'd rather make the trip to either brew or keg instead of just "rack" (read: lazines) 

Also, in your experience, are some yeasts more prone to give "off" flavors the longer the beer sits on the cake?

Any input about your results is greatly appreciated!

-brandon

Jeff W
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You definitely want to let

You definitely want to let the fermentation 'finish', so, if you have the time, I would not do anything less than ten to 14 days. When I'm not in a hurry, I let it ride for three weeks, then transfer to secondary or bottle. Once you get past three weeks, off flavors will start to appear; usually reminiscent of canned tuna.

Kyle N
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I don't think I've racked to

I don't think I've racked to secondary unless I needed to free up a carboy or add Brett. There's really no reason to at the homebrew level. Autolysis just isn't going to take place in a carboy or bucket of 5 gallons of beer in any sort of timescale we generally operate on, and so long as you are working with a healthy culture of yeast, they are not just going to simply start dying off. 

Hell, I've had a beer at the brewhouse in my "primary" fermentor since November 7th. I'm actually going to keg it up today or tomorrow and I bet if I served it blind to anyone they wouldn't detect any issues that are generally related to autolysis. 

Jeff W
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Now every beer you give me to

Now every beer you give me to try is going to taste like autolysis death. Feel free to use that as a beer name.

Brandon Kessler
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Haha! Great name, Jeff!

Haha. Great name, Jeff!

Thanks for the input, guys. Much appreciated.

krisblouch
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This is a great question and

This is a great question and I think I have some good "true life" experiance on this.

I think a couple things are at factor for if "racking is right."

1. How long will the beer sit?

2. What yeast was used?

3. Where/how are you racking?

My Experiances:

1.) If I know the beer will sit more than a month; I always rack.

2.) I make a good bit of cider, and I've been of the "rack after 2 weeks" club for the first few years of brewing... but I started to realize I could leave a cider sit for 6 weeks and not have any issues. And cider has very little to hide off flavors. But: the cider yeasts I've used are usually very low "flocculating" (I don't think that's exactly right. Is there a name for really loose thick trub?) as in there is a very little trub and it settles to a dense pile. Wine yeasts like montrachet create a 1/8 inch thick trub and SO5 is also very low. If I made a cider where I had irish yeast, which seems to leave 8 inches of loose trub, that might be a huge factor I didn't deal with in cider.

3.) I have had more beer go bad from racking in 9 months at the club (3 sour barrells, 2 in one day. Turned out the "star san" was pretty much water... so forgive I'm a little uncertain about star san I didn't see made). So I only rack lagers at the club. They are going into a cold chamber anyway, so I don't really care.   When I racked in my house, I never had an issue (2 barrels in 5 years gone sour, and one I knew was my fault). When I rack now, I use a co2 charger to blow off all the air and try and protect it.

Hope any of that helps.

TL;DR: Do you have to rack.... I'd say def. "no" if your beer isn't sitting for more than a month and it's not some super funky high flocculation yeast.

Brandon Kessler
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Hey Kris

Hey Kris

Thanks for the reply. Noted on your suggestions & appreciated.

And I have to agree with you though on the hesitancy about the Star San bucket.... When I became a member here just a year and 1/2 ago even the "Brewers" that "signed me off" didn't even know how much Star San to put in the bucket. Quite ridiculous in my opinion. 

I'm thankful that Jim V brought up the fact that people were making Star San incorrectly, and that a process has been brought into light.

I'd like to take this moment to remind those who "supervise" a brew to emphasize how to correctly make a batch of Star San using the 1 OZ marking on the mini beaker. And if it's a big brew day & you're making 10 gallons of Star San - measure out 10 gallons of water with the stick in a brew pot. Don't "guesstimate."

Matt O
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I sometimes do. But its not

I sometimes do. But its not necessary with beers that are not aged or you want brilliantly clear.