Is secondary fermentation necessary?

I don't have time frames, and I'm sure it varies depending on the beer style (dark beers hide it better than pale), the amount of yeast, the health of the yeast, pressure, etc. Ever taste "soy sauce" in a well aged beer? That's autolysis. Other things that can be the result of autolysis… cheesy, umami, brothy, meaty. All of these can be subtle. But even more subtle... the pH increase can cause a beer to be not as "crisp." (What wine weenies would call flabby.)

 

FWIW the online version of How To Brew indicates here that Palmer and many experienced brewers have been able to leave a beer in the primary for months without any evidence of autolysis.
My guess is he’s referring to any evidence via taste or smell, which could be (likely is) subjective.

 

There was no mention of what temperature the primary was stored (or did I miss that information?).

Cheers!

 

I dunno. did you miss it?

 

I can state that I did not see any mention of temperature.

 

hmmmm....did you read all the text on the page I linked to?

 

Perhaps?

 

ok

 

From my experience. For a WC IPA or NEIPA. From pitch to package, less than two weeks(in a normal ale fermentation). Keep it in the primary the whole time. No need to transfer. Dry hop right into your primary 3-6 days before package. Less stress, less work.

 

I agree. I used to do the secondary thing and have the same or better results with only the primary if the style permits it. Less work, less chance of introducing contamination and oxygen.

Off topic, but speaking of oxygen; I also stopped using an auto-siphon. Every one I had eventually leaked and introduced air bubbles when racking.

 

I almost always go to secondary. Little risk of oxidation, and I can view the beer in the carboy as opposed to the bucket.

This convo has been remarkably civil. Typically there is more of a mud-fight “tastes great,” “less filling!” debate going on. Cheers!

 

About two years ago, after reading the typical debate that pops up on this issue, I split a 5 gallon batch, with half getting cold crashed on the trub and kegged, & the other half going into a secondary for an additional week before cold crashing and kegging. It was a brown ale. The results? I noticed no discernible difference other than the ale in secondary was maybe a slight bit clearer. Granted, brown ale is pretty basic, so I wonder if the results might be different with a DIPA ?
In any event, I don't do secondary. I like beer that has been sitting on the trub- oh yeah, another good debate can occur on that topic as well....

 

And as to the specific topic of beer sitting on trub, the Brulosophy folks have addressed this via “The Great Trub exBEERiment”.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Cheers!

 

If you take a beer off the yeast cake too early and put it in a secondary fermentation vessel like a barrel will any fermentation continue to take place? I tried to do this today in order to have the beer scavenge any oxygen in the barrel but I’m worried there isn’t enough yeast to keep it going.

 

I think there is a risk involved to accomplish what you want. I don't think the fermentation process will consume the O2 that is in your barrel headspace, only what O2 is still left in the beer. So you either have to purge the barrel with CO2, or you need to have enough fermentation yet to occur so that as CO2 is given off by the yeast still in suspension, the O2 in the headspace will be displaced (hopefully) thru an airlock by the CO2. All that's just a semi-educated guess, but it sounds right to me. I hope your beer turns out.

 

I have to disagree with this. Oxygen will dissolve into the beer and an equilibrium will form between the beer and the headspace. As the yeast consume oxygen, it will draw more of it from the headspace into the beer. (Also, yes, some oxygen will leave via the airlock.) I'm not saying it's guaranteed that every last bit of oxygen will be consumed, but the oxygen in the headspace isn't just going to linger there, it will be actively entering solution while the yeast are active.

 

This is all true. But I'll add that there's a reason people don't intentionally oxygenate their wort/beer after the initial yeast pitch. Yeast use lots of O2 when they are in the "adaptation" phase, i.e. building cell walls for the upcoming fermentation. There's not much of that (if any) happening by the time a beer would be transferred to secondary (barrel or otherwise). Counting on the yeast to use all the O2 that enters the beer at that point would be wishful thinking. Any excess O2 is immediately available to find compounds to oxidize.

 

There would probably be enough yeast to do the job, i.e. finish attenuation. But the problem is that they won't be in a mode where they are using lots of O2, as they are before the exponential growth phase begins.

 

Thank you. My primary concern was that I killed fermentation by removing from the yeast cake too soon. I thoroughly oxygenated the beer prior to pitching my yeast and it had a very vigorous fermentation for a few days and then started to settle. I know it isn't finished yet based on my gravity reading, just hoping there are enough little guys left to finish the job. I wasn't sure if more yeast would be required.