When I learned to brew (extract only), I was told that bigger beers needed to be racked into a secondary fermentor so that bad flavors from the trube didn't contaminate the beer over the last 2 weeks or so before bottling. I've heard some people on here say that they never rack beer over to another container.... so I just tried it on a pale ale and the results were awesome. No off-flavors at all and it makes me wonder if some of my past off-flavors might have resulted from oxygen contamination brought on by the changing of containers. But, this was just a little beer, two weeks of fermenting total. Now I'm doing a big DIPA and so I'm wondering... can I fore-go the racking again? Can it sit for 3+ weeks in the same fermentor with no negative effects? Thanks!
Yes and yes, like Vike said. Unless there is a good reason - like long term aging, aging on bourbon (spirits) / oak or sours, secondary is not normally needed. Some IIPA / DIPAs do recommend it for dry-hopping, like a couple of Heady Topper or Pliny the Elder clones I've seen, but for most beers, Primary is fine, even for dry-hopping.
Did you receive the invitation or just show up? I heard last year it was a crazy party but got shut down by the Crystal Police.
IMO, one of the few reasons to use a secondary is if you have a boatload of trub in the primary and you want to clean up the appearance of the beer. but i rarely do it.
I only secondary if I want to bulk age (strong/sour beer) or need to free up my 6.5 gal carboy. Otherwise I've had no problems; I need to get another big carboy though!
I'm at least using my 5 gallon carboys to buy RO water at the local Wally World. Otherwise, they have been feeling pretty useless these past few years.
