Racking to secondary carboy

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londonaftermi26

Racking to secondary carboy

Post by londonaftermi26 »

hello everyone, question from a newbie, im going to rack my mexican lager to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation, i need to filter out some hops , my question is should i pitch new yeast into the carboy or just use the yeast from the primary to the carboy , reason being im not sure if filtering out the hops will also result in filtering out the yeast as well when i transfer to the carboy, any help is appreciated thanks


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RE: Racking to 2ndary carboy

Post by wottaguy »

Hi londonaftermi26,

Good question you have here. How long has it been in the primary and at what temperature is it at?
I have gone to the no secondary approach and you could probably leave it in the primary for about 4 weeks or until the beer has cleared. 4 to 5 weeks should do it if the temperature is held atthe normal lager fermenting temperature. What kind of yeast did you use? Anyway's...after the 4 or 5 week period, I would bottle and or keg the beer then condition it for around 3 or 4 weeks at lagering temperatures. Doing it this way has freed up a lot of time and resources and has actually inproved the beers that I brew. Its a lot less work and you can reat assured that if you have sanatized your primary vessel correctly, there is a lot less chance to get an infection from going from primary to secondary. The trick here is to be able to maintain and hold the beer at the correct fermentation temperature through out the entire amount of time with very little fluctuation in the temperature.

That's my approach at this time and it seems to work out for me pretty good.

Hope this helps!
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londonaftermi26

Post by londonaftermi26 »

thanks for the info, currently the brew has been fermenting at 68'F.. its on its 3rd day, im using fermentis saflager dry lager yeast s-23, i was going to bring down to 52-54 degrees while still in the primary after about 5 days in the primary, and maintain the temp for about week and half, then rack to a glass carboy same temp for about 2 weeks then bottle it but im concenerd that the when i rack to the carboy and try to filter out the hops i might take the yeast with it, and maybe run thr risk of runing the beer
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RE: Racking to...

Post by wottaguy »

Hello again londonaftermi26

I hope that you can forgive me for saying this but.....
68 degF is in my opinion way too warm for a lager yeast to produce a quality beer. I'm afraid that you may encounter a lot of esthers and fusil alcohols. When I brew a lager, whether from usimg dry or liquid lager yeasts, I'll create a starter 4 days before pitching then feed the starter to grow the yeast to a decent pitching rate. It should at least be twice the rate of doing an ale. I'll also create the starter at my pitching temp of around 47 to 50 degF. I do not let the fermenting temperature ever get above 50 to 51 degF. I'll hold the fermentation at 48 degF for a min of 4 weeks..sometimes 5 to 6 weeks. It should be clear in the carboy at this point. Then I rack to kegs and or prime and bottle the beer.

Please let us know how your brew comes out as I myself would like to know.
Would anyone else have an opinion about this?

Thanks!
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On Tap:
HL Pale Ale
HL Lite Lager
Bottled:
HL Simcoe Pale Ale
HL Wizeguy Weizenbock
HL Reveur Saison
HL Dry Stout
HL Kentucky Common
londonaftermi26

Post by londonaftermi26 »

yes i do realize this is a very unorthdox way of fermenting a lager, but then again this is my first lager, but i really do agree the temp is way to high, but ive also read that letting a lager ferment a max of 5 day at room temp then slowly reaching a 50 to 54 degree fermentation should help mellow the flavor, right now it taste pretty good, no off flavors as of right now, but i did get a tea bag sensation today so this could mean my lager isnt doing well, this is also my first partial mash using no liquid extract,
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Post by slothrob »

I'll be curious to find out how this works out.

The general rule of thumb is to ferment cool initially, especially with a lager. Then, when all of the yeast growth and most of the fermentation is complete, you allow the temperature to go above 60
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londonaftermi26

Post by londonaftermi26 »

update, on this mexican brew, i just transfered it to the fridge last night, its currently fermenting between 51 and 54 so far the flavor is bitter due to the cascade hops i used for bittering, as far as i can tell there are no off flavors, and does not seem fruity, but i do agree with your opinion this is reverse of the typical larger fermentation, but so far i think with aging it should turn out fine, its very close to a Corona, but time will tell i will keep you posted, thanks again for any and all advice
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Post by cozrulz »

Sounds like it should come out tasting like a Corona, which so far it does. So, if it is good to you then it is a success.
londonaftermi26

Post by londonaftermi26 »

another update, since this is my first partial mash, i do have to say im very happy so far, i cant wait till i crack open the first one, but im going to try to hold off for at least 3 week to a month after bottling to try one, ive been learning with Mr.beer mixes and for beginngers i think its good to get you intrested, but i believe there products dont produce good beer, so far everyone has had a off flavor, but since ive changed to quality ingredients and moved away from mr.beer formats of brewing, ive found thats where the money is at, im currently using the mr.beer fermenter so i kinda holds me back from decent size batches, but i figure if mess up 2 gallons it wont be as bad as if i ruined 5 gallons or more, so when i nail my favorite recipes a few times to my liking i'll set up to a large batch size, but again thanks for all your input


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Post by Chief »

londonaftermi26 wrote:another update, since this is my first partial mash, i do have to say im very happy so far, i cant wait till i crack open the first one, but im going to try to hold off for at least 3 week to a month after bottling to try one, ive been learning with Mr.beer mixes and for beginngers i think its good to get you intrested, but i believe there products dont produce good beer, so far everyone has had a off flavor, but since ive changed to quality ingredients and moved away from mr.beer formats of brewing, ive found thats where the money is at, im currently using the mr.beer fermenter so i kinda holds me back from decent size batches, but i figure if mess up 2 gallons it wont be as bad as if i ruined 5 gallons or more, so when i nail my favorite recipes a few times to my liking i'll set up to a large batch size, but again thanks for all your input


mike
Mike, here here....I too had the same set-up. You and I are at about the same level....I finished my first batch about three weeks ago. And now I am on my second one. The beer from that first one ROCKED! So just go with the standard 5 gal....it isn't that expensive and to be honest.....I am not very good at the math to change the ingrediants. So good luck and let us know how it works out.
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