Secondary Fermentor

[Bugeater]

belgian styles- These beers almost always taste better after aging a couple of months. Again, I don't like leaving a belgian beer that I spent so much time and money on aging on top of a 3" yeast cake. I keep it in primary for a month to get the FG down as low as possible, then transfer to secondary for at least another month or more. The taste is oh so much better!

So why not just put it in the keg after primary and then let it sit like you would in your secondary? When it's done there's no need to transfer it over; you can just chill it and drink it.

This is precisely why I seldom do a "secondary" any more. I rack most beers directly from the primary to the keg and let it sit for a month or two. As homebrewers we really need to completely drop the use of the term "secondary fermentation" as there is no second fermentation. What we are actually doing 99% of the time is racking to a bright tank for aging and to allow the beers to drop clear. Fermentaton, if any at all, is a minor item in the bright tank.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[beerdrinker]

ok.... so if I go from primary to keg, should I carbonate the keg right away? or age the keg and then carbonate a 2-6 weeks after before tapping the keg?

[Camel]

ok.... so if I go from primary to keg, should I carbonate the keg right away? or age the keg and then carbonate a 2-6 weeks after before tapping the keg?

I pressurize the keg just to make sure the lid has made a good seal but I do not keep CO2 on it when I am just trying to age the beer. If the lid does not seal properly then bugs can get in.

Every week I check the keg with a pressure gage like the one in this link to make sure the any activity that may still be happening does not over pressurize the keg.

[BeerMan]

Interesting thread I have been using glass carboys for primary and secondary fermentors for about 10 years or roughly 240 batches, I have only had 2 infected batches one was an early partial extract I have no idea what happened probably sanitation, the 2nd infection came from a yellow jacket climbing into my primary during pitching. I started playing with no secondary the last 10 to 12 batches , I find this works well with a few draw backs can't see the beer (just me like being able to see my beer) and I believe the secondary is very useful for adding other flavors after fermentation that cant be bagged, a keg can also be used for additives if they can be bagged (hops as an example). I think risk of infection is greater in the primary than in the secondary under the same sanitation conditions and should not be used as the primary reason to go primary only. The real advantages I have found a is reduced risk of oxygenation, I have adapted a beverage out quick disconnect to fill my keg with co2 from the dip tube I charge my keg with co2 prior to racking beer from the primary in theory no oxygen contact with beer.
For aging I use a brite tank (corney with about 1 inch trimmed of dip tube) and transfer from primary as described above, after the beer has aged I transfer from brite tank to a standard corney using 2 beverage out quick disconnects and co2 to push it from the brite tank again no oxygen contact. If I did not have a kegging system I would probably still use a secondary for additives and aging, I don't let my beer sit on the yeast cake for more than 14 days.