10 February 2008

I Don't Care What John Palmer Does

Well, most of the time anyway.

A few months ago, August or September, I read that John Palmer and Jamil Zainashef do not transfer their beers to secondary. The risk of oxidation, they say, is too great. And they say they don't have a problem with clear beer.

So I stopped racking to secondary. Here's the problem I keep having:

I have been drinking on this keg for a week. Except for the first few glasses, the beers were relatively clear. I increased the CO2 by 2 pounds to carbonated a stout off the same tank. And I poured the above beer. Full of floaties. I'm going to have to wait a couple more days for this thing to settle down again.

You would think that after six or seven glasses like this, there wouldn't be any more floaties. You would be wrong.

So from now on, I'm racking to secondary.

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posted by hiikeeba at 17:18

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder if maybe extra time in the primary would help with that? I bottle, so I can't really comment from experience on the kegging-specific aspects.

9:28 AM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

I left it in primary for 14-16 days, can't remember offhand right now. I used gelatin to fine, and still got floaties.

9:39 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

I gave up the secondary a long time ago. I think some depends on the how much trub gets into your fermenter, and then how much you carry over when racking from the fermenter. It also helps to trim the dip tube a little.

10:18 AM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

My problem might be that I don't leave a lot in the kettle. My kettle doesn't have a spigot, so I pour through a strainer.

10:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I skip the secondary, but I leave beer in the primary for at least 3 weeks and sometimes a month .. the 14-16 days is probably not enough

6:32 PM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

Okay, now I'm confused.

Advocates of secondary fermentation tell me that I need to get my beer off the dead yeast quickly.

Advocates of no secondary fermentation tell me that I can let my beer sit on the yeast for up to 21 days.

You're telling me I can go 30?

I'm gonna need more beer. . .

7:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll offer this. I normally set up to end up with six gallons after the boil. I go into the primary for at least 14 days and 21 if possible. Then I rack into a 5 gal. keg and leave all the trub and excess beer behind. I will then take the keg down to 34 degrees BEFORE adding CO2. This gives me consistantly clear beer.
good luck

Rease

7:35 PM  
Blogger hiikeeba said...

Thanks for the tips. I ferment 5 gallons of wort, so I wind up with about 4 1/2 gallons of finished beer. I might need to collect on 4 gallons, or collect more wort. I will also need to figure out a way to crash the beer, though. I only have one fridge.

7:48 PM  

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