Dropping

[cyderspace]

Howdy all,

Do you drop your beer into a secondary fv after a day or two?

Graham Wheeler says the benefits outweigh the risks. I've always been afraid of infection.

I'd be interested to know what percentage of brewers do this. And if you do drop it, at what stage, and how? If you need aeration, can you simply pour it, whilst leaving the trub behind, or should I syphon?

Has anyone noticed the fermentation slow down after dropping? Does it still form a decent yeast head afterwards? Is it actually worth doing?

Your comments would be very helpful.

Thanks.

 

[terrym]

Howdy all,

Do you drop your beer into a secondary fv after a day or two?

Graham Wheeler says the benefits outweigh the risks. I've always been afraid of infection.

I'd be interested to know what percentage of brewers do this. And if you do drop it, at what stage, and how? If you need aeration, can you simply pour it, whilst leaving the trub behind, or should I syphon?

Has anyone noticed the fermentation slow down after dropping? Does it still form a decent yeast head afterwards? Is it actually worth doing?

Your comments would be very helpful.

Thanks.

I am not sure about 'dropping', not heard that term before.
If it helps I usually rack off when the primary has finished to help clear the beer, and since my FVs don't have bottom taps I do this by siphon. Never noticed any problems.
I think the infection risk thing is blown out of proportion by many homebrewers. Lots of people talk about it but have never had a bad brew. That's not to say you can't get an infection, particularly if you are sloppy with hygiene, it might just be you are unlucky. Same goes for oxidation, you really have to do something silly to oxidise your beer.
And as far as aerating your beer a few days into the primary I don't understand why you should do this. I thought that yeast needs oxygen at the beginning of the fermenatation to multiply, but thereafter the fermentation is anaerobic, no need for more oxygen. I'm sure someone on here will know more about this than I do, there usually is!

 

[cyderspace]

I am not sure about 'dropping', not heard that term before.
If it helps I usually rack off when the primary has finished to help clear the beer, and since my FVs don't have bottom taps I do this by siphon. Never noticed any problems.
I think the infection risk thing is blown out of proportion by many homebrewers. Lots of people talk about it but have never had a bad brew. That's not to say you can't get an infection, particularly if you are sloppy with hygiene, it might just be you are unlucky. Same goes for oxidation, you really have to do something silly to oxidise your beer.
And as far as aerating your beer a few days into the primary I don't understand why you should do this. I thought that yeast needs oxygen at the beginning of the fermenatation to multiply, but thereafter the fermentation is anaerobic, no need for more oxygen. I'm sure someone on here will know more about this than I do, there usually is!

Thanks Terry. Drop/rack is same. I just mean transferring into another fv after a couple of days to get the beer away from the dead stuff, rather than sat on it for 2 weeks.

 

[BeerCat]

No I don't often bother unless I want the yeast. Also depending on what yeast you use it may clear by itself in a week. MJ abbey yeast for instance.

 

[peebee]

I think "dropping" is a term used by certain commercial fermentation methods that are still in use in some breweries. As far as us home-brewers are concerned racking beer off the junk into a secondary fermenter is near enough the same thing.

The GW recommendations come from a time (not so long ago!) when things were done very different: Primary ferment was in an unsealed bucket and it was a very good idea getting the beer into a closed (airlock) secondary vessel to clear. A "closed" primary fermentation was regarded as a bad thing, but now days many folk fit airlocks even to the primary and often omit racking to a secondary vessel.

The earlier instructions were based on attempting to copy what goes on commercially (open fermentations). But for home-brewing the newer instructions I think has improved things no end with very few folk suffering oxidised home-brew, and worse. For those with a few pennies to spare the introduction of conical fermenters to home-brewing goes another step forward.

 

[DoctorMick]

I never bother with secondary, the only time I would is if I desperately needed to reuse the yeast and I was planning on dry hopping or if I needed to do an extended bulk ageing.

 

[Slid]

I always rack to secondary, but concede that I am probably in the minority. My reasoning is all to do with clarity and minimising the amount of yeast in the end product.

It probably makes little difference, TBH, as long as you leave it for 2/3 weeks before bottling. Further, I would never try to persuade anyone to change their habits over this practice.

 

[Poochops]

I tend to leave it weeks in primary usually about 3 plus. I rack it into the bottling bucket and often leave it there for another few days as well for no ther reason than I'm in no particular rush. Often the beer is perfectly clear by the time I bottle especially with the CML yeast, I hate having anything more than the absolute minimum yeast sediment in the bottle.

 

[foxbat]

I never use a secondary. My beer is fermented, dry hopped, crash cooled, batch primed and then bottled direct from a tap I fitted on the primary fermenter.

 

[strange-steve]

What DoctorMick said, only if bulk aging for a long time (and even then I sometimes don't bother).

 

[cyderspace]

I think "dropping" is a term used by certain commercial fermentation methods that are still in use in some breweries. As far as us home-brewers are concerned racking beer off the junk into a secondary fermenter is near enough the same thing.

The GW recommendations come from a time (not so long ago!) when things were done very different: Primary ferment was in an unsealed bucket and it was a very good idea getting the beer into a closed (airlock) secondary vessel to clear. A "closed" primary fermentation was regarded as a bad thing, but now days many folk fit airlocks even to the primary and often omit racking to a secondary vessel.

The earlier instructions were based on attempting to copy what goes on commercially (open fermentations). But for home-brewing the newer instructions I think has improved things no end with very few folk suffering oxidised home-brew, and worse. For those with a few pennies to spare the introduction of conical fermenters to home-brewing goes another step forward.

That's excellent peebee, thank you. Very interesting. I knew GW was old school but that's not a bad thing a lot of the time. He must have been doing something right I guess!
I've tried an airlock on the fv but it didn't do anything. And I tend to have a peak now and then. Conical fermenters sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

 

[cyderspace]

That's excellent peebee, thank you. Very interesting. I knew GW was old school but that's not a bad thing a lot of the time. He must have been doing something right I guess!
I've tried an airlock on the fv but it didn't do anything. And I tend to have a peak now and then. Conical fermenters sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

 

[hamster]

I never bother with secondary, the only time I would is if I desperately needed to reuse the yeast and I was planning on dry hopping or if I needed to do an extended bulk ageing.

So you always move into secondary before dry hopping ?

I've never bothered, leave mine in FV for initial fermentation, dry hopping and conditioning so it sits on trub for anywhere between 3-6 weeks. I have read that leaving on the trub can cause grassy flavors but I'm not sure that is massively true. I've never had issues...

Personally I think limiting oxygen exposure is the best thing to do. I always bottle mine as well and really want to trial a beer gun to reduce the O2 in the bottle head as well...

 

[foxy]

Limiting o2 is a good thing, but for bottling the o2 in the head space is cleared up by the yeast during conditioning.

 

[DoctorMick]

So you always move into secondary before dry hopping

Nope, only I'd only do it if I needed to reuse the yeast as I wouldn't want alll the hop debris in there.