When to Rack to Secondary

[kevBrew]

I have a double ipa going in the primary right now and it has been 15 days.

All the yeast has dropped out and the beer is pretty clear. However, there is still quite a bit of co2 activity going on.

There is probably about a 1/4 inch layer of foam on top from the co2 gassing off, and the airlock is bubbling at 6 per minute.

So do you wait for the yeast to clear before racking or the co2 to settle down.

I am racking to a secondary for dry hopping purposes.

Kevin

[brewinhard]

I think you have the perfect timing right now to rack to secondary and add the dry hops. There still seems to be enough CO2 generating to minimize oxidation as you rack into secondary. Maybe you should take a quick gravity reading before racking just to make sure you are close to your final gravity before you pull it off the yeast cake. If all is good, add the hops to secondary and rack carefully on top.

[hopshead]

Personally, I would dry hop right in the primary after fermentation and not rack to secondary, its not necessary.

[kevBrew]

I feel the yeast would absorb quite a bit of hop aroma and oils.

I am just going by what Vinnie Cilurzo had to say in one of the sessions at NHC.

[11amas]

What are you basing your "feelings" on? If you don't think Jamil and Palmer know what they are talking about, go ahead and use a secondary carboy. If you want to trust the paragons of the BN...dry hop in your primary and "secondary" in your keg as you clarify. You can safely go up to 3, maybe 3.5 weeks in primary before risking autolysis flavors from dead yeast. Your "secondary" is simply inviting more contamination and oxidization. Secondary, from JZ and Rock Candy's latest recommendations, is more for long term storage such as lagering or sour beers if I recall.

[siwelwerd]

I feel the yeast would absorb quite a bit of hop aroma and oils.

I have not done a controlled experiment, but this sounds fishy to me. I dry hop in primary all the time and end up with great aroma/flavor from the dry hopping. The only reason to go to a secondary for dry hopping is if you want to reuse that yeast.

[kevBrew]

Everything I have heard from JZ and Palmer is that the secondary is for two things. Long term storage and Dry Hopping.

They were just talking about this on the "Packagegasm" show.

This was also discussed on the "Dry Hopping" show of BrewStrong.

I am not anti primary by any means. I know to leave your beer in the primary for all other situations and I abide by that.

All I know is according to Vinnie, Russian River crash cools Pliny overnight to settle the yeast out, transfers the beer to a secondary fermenter, then they dry hop in the secondary for the next 10-14 days.

This was stated by him in a session at NHC which was on the Sunday Session Show.

I specifically remember hearing Vinnie talk about the yeast absorbing aroma and oils from the dry hops thus taking this away from the beer.

Now, I have never had one of your beers. But I have had many Pliny's and Vinnie makes the best damn IPA around.

So forgive for listening to a PRO.

[11amas]

Do the math, if your primary is done, ~2-3 weeks, plus 14 days of dry hopping, you are at or over 4 weeks which is what I am saying. The point JZ and Palmer make is that you shouldn't secondary to secondary.

Also, don't apply the techniques of a pro to the homebrewer scenario just to do so; sometimes we do things that are different because the returns are not worth it. I would go more based on homebrewer recommendations rather than mimicking the pros for no other reason.

The point is, you haven't tried my beer and I haven't tried yours so, when you say "Vinnie makes awesome beer so I will do what he does" and ignore the recommendations of other homebrewers for that reason you are not seeing the forest through the trees.