I could use a little help...

wait for sure, I leave most everything in the primary for two weeks, you risk diacetyl if you pull it too early.

 

You should leave it in primary for 3 weeks total and then bottle it. Generally speaking most beers don't need a secondary. Unfortunately many kits have poor/outdated directions in them.

 

What's the obsession with air-lock bubbling rate?
Does it come from some kiind of hot-trub time machine?

 

I usually dry hop in primary after two weeks. I would just go ahead and get the thief while you are waiting for the beer to finish.

 

Many new brewers report their bubbling rate as if it means anything.

Just wondering aloud; where does this notion about the importance of bubbling rate come from b/c it's meaningless.

 

I believe it is from many recipe kit instructions and older homebrewing information. Most new brewers are going to assume that airlock activity = fermentation activity because they don't have the experience to know otherwise.

 

I never secondary, I keep it in primary 3-4 weeks and then keg. Once I put it in the fermenter, I try not to open it up again till I need to keg. Just let the beer ferment and do its thing.

 

</cleared up></pondering>

 

YES

 

OP: skip secondary, let your beer go in primary for 3 weeks. Take 2 gravity readings and make sure they're 3 days apart. If you get the same gravity reading both times, you're done and you should bottle.

<we're going to start copying and pasting this tonight>

And don't you dare post back in two weeks wondering why your bottles haven't carbed yet. Slow down, turbo.

 

No necessarily. Secondaries are great for fruit additions and bulk aging of big beers that could use a bit more time before packaging. Alse, I'm assuming that the secondary in question is a 5gal carboy, which works well for fermenting smaller batches when your bucket is already occupied.

 

surely it means something

 

You beat me to the punch... I love my secondary.

OP, if you still feel like you "bought a kit with a secondary for nothing then.", I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands. it'll free up my other carboys while I brew a barleywine or something strong for the Holiday seasons...

 

Maybe not "for nothing" but probably not for most beers. I use a secondary with sour beers and fruit beers, but I don't brew these much. You can also use it as a primary so you can have multiple batches going at once!

You can put a sanitized hydrometer into a fermenter to check gravity. Just be careful not to break it. There have been stories... If you have a bucket fermenter, you can do what I do and sanitize a measuring cup and scoop out about 40-50 mL of beer, depending on the volume of your hydrometer tube. And by alll means taste your hydrometer sample. Your taste buds give you info about whether the beer is ready to package; the hydrometer just tells you whether the yeast stopped making alcohol.

 

One comment here: bubbling is not "meaningless". sugar -> alcohol + CO2. In a sealed fermenter, airlock bubbling certainly indicates primary fermentation! I have never made a batch that didn't bubble. To your point however, bubbling does not indicate secondary fermentation (ie conditioning), and a better indication of primary fermentation is a gravity measurement.