Secondary fermentation and conditioning

[snbrewer]

Hello everyone.

I usually leave my beer in the FV for around two to three weeks before bottling. However, I’m currently doing a kit (Woodforde Wherry) which is coming up to 3 weeks in the fermenter and I’m thinking of racking the beer into four glass demijohns in order to clear the beer before siphoning (after two weeks) into bottles.

Will this help to improve the taste of the beer or should I just siphon into bottles now? Is there a risk of the yeast all dropping out of suspension leading to poor carbonation once it makes it to the bottles?
Thanks!

 

[crowcrow]

Personally, I never found moving to a second (or even a third) bucket made my beer any clearer. I now keg/bottle straight from the primary (after a cold crash, no finings) and get beer I am very happy with in terms of clarity.

As for dropping too much yeast out, I think you'd have to be very very thorough. My mate used to go primary, 2ndry and then through a filter to a bottling bucket, then crash and then bottle. And never had an issue with bottle conditioning. Like me, he now bottles straight from the primary.

 

[Tommo 2]

Really not necessary mate I always do the two two two method two primary two in bottles then two somewhere cooler to condition. I always siphon to a bottling bucket fitted with the little bottler bottling wand with whatever sugar for secondary fermentation then bottle, never failed me yet, but I always but the bottles or pb In the same place that the primary fermentation took place

 

[cushyno]

I'd say leave it longer in the primary. After 3-4 weeks if the fermentation has completely finished the yeast will have mostly dropped of it's own accord. Less faffing with racking beer gives better results. The less you transfer from one vessel to the next, the less chance of introducing infection and oxidising the beer. Leaving another week on the yeast won't cause any trouble at all, just let gravity do its thing.

However, if you're impatient to get the next brew on like me, bottle it after 2 weeks and let it clear in the bottle.

A friend of mine shared a couple of bottles of wherry with me. While a little oxidation is true to style, the oxidation from transferring to bottling bucket then to bottles us a little too much. When you bottle, try not to slosh the beer around too much and certainly don't shake the bottle.

 

[snbrewer]

Thanks everyone.

I siphoned the beer off into bottles this evening, and will leave for another 4 weeks as per the suggestions you’ve made (although the beer tastes pretty good flat!).

I used to do BIAB with Irish Moss added towards the end of the boil which was great for clearing the beer. Just worried that the yeast won’t sink down this time without additives.

Does anyone use the finings from Wilko? I have a few packets of that which I haven’t used which I might trial on my next batch if this one doesn’t clear.