Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[hammondc]

I have an autosiphon. I was just thinking it is generally recommended to move to a secondary after a week or so to improve clarity and avoid a funk caused by the dead yeast.

Also, do you think is necessary to agitate the fermenter by gently swirling it during fermentation?


...I know I am asking a lot of stuff. I really appreciate the help. Can you suggest an online forum for homebrewing. Somewhere with nice folks, like here.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by hammondc

I have an autosiphon. I was just thinking it is generally recommended to move to a secondary after a week or so to improve clarity and avoid a funk caused by the dead yeast.

I always rack to a secondary, usually sometime between 5 & 10 days, but you don't have to.

Originally Posted by hammondc

Also, do you think is necessary to agitate the fermenter by gently swirling it during fermentation?

Nope. I agitate like hell before pitching the yeast, but once that's done, I never touch it and don't think there's a reason to.

Originally Posted by hammondc

...I know I am asking a lot of stuff. I really appreciate the help. Can you suggest an online forum for homebrewing. Somewhere with nice folks, like here.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/

[Salvelinus]

Originally Posted by hammondc

I have an autosiphon. I was just thinking it is generally recommended to move to a secondary after a week or so to improve clarity and avoid a funk caused by the dead yeast.

If you are going to move to a secondary do it for the clarity. I'd be interested to hear what brewers here think, but I don't know anyone that concerns themselves with yeast autolysis at the normal timeframe for ales. If you were going to leave it in primary for a year or two maybe, but not after two weeks.

In response to agitation, I don't during fermentation, but I do each day after I dry hop. I was listening to a podcast with the brewer from Avery, he mentioned that they plumb CO2 through their maharaja during dry hop to agitate the hops and get as much of the oils into suspension as possible. I just gently rock the carboy to get the hops throughout the beer. This ruins the clarity from secondarying, but I don't care because I cold crash it to clear it out.

[BeerAdvocate]

Originally Posted by Salvelinus

If you are going to move to a secondary do it for the clarity. I'd be interested to hear what brewers here think, but I don't know anyone that concerns themselves with yeast autolysis at the normal timeframe for ales. If you were going to leave it in primary for a year or two maybe, but not after two weeks.

This is why I usually skip secondary. I stopped using secondary a few years ago and have never noticed a differance. One less step!