I'm relatively new to home brew... I've done 5 batches that are each 1 gallon. Found an IPA recipe that I liked and decided to scale to 5 gallons (partial mash). When my home brew shop put it in their program, it called for only 4 days in primary and then 10 days in secondary. That doesn't sound right... Only 4 days in primary? Has anyone done this before? I brewed on 6/19 and everything went well. Hard bubbles for the last 2-3 days... But I'm hesitant to take it out of primary so soon. Recipe is below for reference: IPA with heavy Citra/Amarillo 5 gallon Target 5.7% ABV Target 56 IBU 1lb and 1.5oz of crystal light 45L 6.4 oz of carapils (briess) 6 lbs of DME Pilsen light 5 oz sugar Boil: 1 oz glacier (60') .5 oz citra (20') 1.5 oz citra (5') 1 oz Amarillo (5') 1 oz citra (1') 1 oz Amarillo (1') 1 packet of US-04 yeast Dry hop 1oz citra and 1 oz Amarillo OG 1.052 (target 1.058) Target FG 1.014
It's likely that many will chime in here, but there is no need to transfer an IPA to secondary. You can complete the entire fermentation in primary and then bottle. I usually leave my IPAs in primary for 2 weeks, plus-minus a few days depending on dry-hopping. I would suggest being generally skeptical of LHBS advice, especially in the beginning.
Most homebrewers today don't bother with a secondary - it's really not necessary except for specific reasons such as extra dry hopping (most dry hop directly in the primary), adding fruit, etc. Leave it in the primary for at least 2 weeks (up to three weeks), and then, if it is finished fermenting (most likely it will be), bottle or keg it. I leave all my beers in the primary for three weeks. That way, the yeast has time to do its "cleaning up". No need to rush if you want a good beer.
I've read some of the debate about the reasons for secondary. I'm going to use a secondary for 3 reasons... I was a given a 6 gal carboy and a 5 gal carboy, so I have the equipment. I've never used a secondary ... So it's partly an experiment I've dry hopped in my primary before, but the hop particles just swelled up and stayed up top. I think this is partly because of the trub bubbles holding up the hop particles. Thanks for the replies. I plan on doing at least 10 days in primary and at least 7 days in secondary,
Yes, I can understand that desire to experiment...until you start kegging and realize you were living in the stone age
Doing a secondary won't be a satisfying experiment. It's just a transfer. I did it as part of my normal brewing procedure for years with no ill effects, but stopped once I realized how pointless it was. Basically the only reason I did it was to free up my primary bucket to use as my bottling bucket. Then when I rebuilt my homebrewery at my current place I just bought two buckets.
the biggest reason against secondary, especially for a hop forward beer like the one you are making, is it can intorduce oxygen unnecessarily. the syphon will inevitably suck oxygen into the beer and it can also meet oxygen if there is too much head space in the secondary vessel. we are all just trying to help you out. do yourself a favor and google search hops and oxygen and read a few of those articles.
Here's some insight to the mysteries of what's going on in the primary: https://www.morebeer.com/articles/conditioning Regarding using the carboy because you have it: I used to wear lederhosen while brewing until my co-brewer injured himself from laughing so hard. Now it just sits in the closet.
I find the best practice is to go onto an online forum to ask advice of people supposedly more knowledgeable than you, and when they all disagree with you just do whatever you want anyway
Give yourself a better reason to use the secondary, like age the beer on coffee or guava, or whatever you think you'd like in your beer (although I'd hate to mess with a good Citra/Amarillo-hopped beer).
