BeerBorg

I have been contemplating splitting my fermentation, for some batches, and had a question about smaller ones. I have read much about leaving as little headroom in the secondary. Given a two gallon batch would it be better rack to a three gallon carboy or 2 one gallon jugs?

If your going to do it you do want as little headspace as possible, so in your case the 2 jugs.

That said, I would not bother with doing it. I brew 1.08+ OG beers sometimes without bothering with a secondary. Back in the dark ages, I used to secondary all the time. No more, I consider it just one more step for something to go wrong with no real benefit IMHO as long as you are pitching enough yeast and/or can be patient and resist temptation and let stuff sit in the bottle if it needs to. But if you pitch enough yeast, even that becomes not as necessary.

IMHO the only real reason to do it would be to free up a fermenter faster if you just can't leave stuff in it for 2-3 weeks. Otherwise don't bother.

And my answer to that is to get more fermenters instead.

Right. Never done a secondary in 4 1/2 years.

ebbz wrote:I have been contemplating splitting my fermentation, for some batches, and had a question about smaller ones. I have read much about leaving as little headroom in the secondary. Given a two gallon batch would it be better rack to a three gallon carboy or 2 one gallon jugs?

If you're doing 2 gal batches what are you looking to do or gain by splitting the batch into secondary? The only time I use a secondary is if I have a a big beer that has a high OG (1.075 or higher) or if I plan to do dry hopping of some type that works better by racking the wort on to the hops or whatever addition I have such as vanilla beans. In most cases with the smaller batches that we do as homebrewers moving the wort to secondary really isn't needed and could potentially cause problems with contamination or oxidizing the wort when racking it to the secondary.

^What they said^

Let us know if you had a reason for wanting to rack the beer to a secondary or if this is just what you think you should do from reading.

My main reason was to clarify the.batch and separate it from the trub . I have read much and and thought it might make for a clearer batch. I was thinking about this for a batch of hard cider. I have not racked to a secondary for my beer and with the exception of some sediment I have not had a problem. I have always joked that the sediment is just extra "flavor." I will always listen to those that are more experienced than me and appreciate the comments.

If you leave it in the bottle for 4 weeks or so, and then put it in the fridge a while before you open it, and are careful to just pour the beer all at once into a pint glass in a single pour with just a little bit left behind, any extra sediment should pretty much just stay in the bottle.

And clarity is over rated. Look at east coast beers these days LOL.

If it really bothers you then buy a yeast that says it's "highly flocculent". A good clean yeast that is fermented anywhere from 57-66 degrees is Nottingham. You will get clear beer or cider from that yeast secondary or not because the sediment in the fermenter will pack down into a gelatinous mass by 2 weeks.

Also, beers clear with time. I also have rarely used a secondary. Especially with the cider, a couple weeks in the fridge should drop out any remaining yeast.


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Thanks again. I guess I will just keep on doing what has traditionally worked best for me and ignore the hype.

ebbz, all the advice above is right on and I have not ever done a secondary on a small batch of low gravity beer. But with that said, I secondary most every 5 gal and larger brews and I have reasons for doing it.
1} I binge brew, I have one 6.5 primary and three 5 gal carboys. I can get my turn around time from 1 -2 weeks per batch in the primary. I can get a lot of beer going in a few months time.
2} I can let the beer sit in the secondary for quite a while when I am too busy to bottle and that gives it some good conditioning time also
3} it does make a clearer beer but with loss.
4} A secondary works good for dry hopping or adding fruit or some late spices.
On to the bad things and disadvantages.
1} Doubled the chances of contamination.
2} Risk of oxidation. and yes not much head space needed or wanted in a secondary.
3} More work involved in the brewing process......
So what I'm saying is, it's not a bad thing to do, but usually not needed most of the time, but depends on your circumstances.

I binge brew, I have one 6.5 primary and three 5 gal carboys. I can get my turn around time from 1 -2 weeks per batch in the primary. I can get a lot of beer going in a few months time.

This is pretty much the only reason I would still do it, except I solve that problem by just having more primary fermenters.

berryman wrote:ebbz, all the advice above is right on and I have not ever done a secondary on a small batch of low gravity beer. But with that said, I secondary most every 5 gal and larger brews and I have reasons for doing it.
1} I binge brew, I have one 6.5 primary and three 5 gal carboys. I can get my turn around time from 1 -2 weeks per batch in the primary. I can get a lot of beer going in a few months time.
2} I can let the beer sit in the secondary for quite a while when I am too busy to bottle and that gives it some good conditioning time also
3} it does make a clearer beer but with loss.
4} A secondary works good for dry hopping or adding fruit or some late spices.
On to the bad things and disadvantages.
1} Doubled the chances of contamination.
2} Risk of oxidation. and yes not much head space needed or wanted in a secondary.
3} More work involved in the brewing process......
So what I'm saying is, it's not a bad thing to do, but usually not needed most of the time, but depends on your circumstances.

At what OG should one consider it is high gravity? If extra fermentables are added (sugar, honey, etc), should that be extra "yeast food" be taken as high gravity?

OG above 1.075.

I would call that high gravity too, however I have brewed beers that big (and bigger, all the way up to close to 1.09 this year), without bothering with a secondary or even longer (3-4 week) waits in my primary fermenter.

Just use this pitch rate calculator:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitc ... alculator/

And for beers in the 1.07-1.08 range pick "Pro Brewer 1.0", and pick "Pro Brewer 1.25" if it's higher then that. And yeah it will tell you to pitch a hella lot of yeast, way more then Mr. Malty. Do it. Your fermentation will be done in 7-10 days even with a beer that big. That's pretty much how all those worked out, I bottled them at day 14 and they would have been completely drinkable then if I could have force carbed them. The big Belgian and spiced winter beers I made this year I could have consumed immediately out of the fermenter since I started pitching at those rates. Secondary totally not necessary for conditioning.

In the relatively recent past (a few years back) I would still have not secondary them, but they would have stayed in my primary for 3 weeks, and then sat in the bottle for 3 months.

But totally not required since I said "what the hell" and actually tried pitching at those stupidly high seeming rates. Those rates allow for about 2-3 generations of growth in the fermenter, which is all that is needed to generate the ester/phenol profile for most things (maybe not banana forward wheat beers or very fruity Belgians unless you ferment hot), or to avoid unwanted ones if using a clean yeast.