secondary fermentaion
Moderator: slothrob
secondary fermentaion
I am unclear on how this works. So can someone explain it to me and give basic tips ? Do you allow your beer to finish fermenting then transfer it to a secondary fermenter where you put more yeast in ? How do you get the secondary fermenter to start fermenting again after you have finished with the primary? Forgive me, I am very new to all grain brewing and using really fruit in 2nd fermenter. Any tips are welcome!!
Secondary Fermentation
The object of the secondary normally is for clarification--you want the extra yeast and suspended matter to settle, therefore no extra yeast required at this stage. With fruit beers, you'll have more sludge than normal so you'll probably want to rack it a third time to a "tertiary" fermenter so you can get better clearing. As far as adding yeast to the secondary, it shouldn't be required for your fruit to ferment. There should be enough remaining to do the job. However, if you're unsure I don't think it'd hurt. To avoid aeration problems, put the fruit in the secondary first and rack on top of it. BTW, check out this site for more info www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
Good luck.
v/r
Bill
Good luck.
v/r
Bill
Secondary Fermentation
Just a little tip, adding fruit juice ( or any other sugar for that matter )to your secondary, I usually recommend using a blowoff tube instead of a standard airlock. Due to the amount of yeast cells that is in your beer after primary any addition of sugar will usually create a faster and more vigorous fermentation which may cause the krausen to overfill your secondary.