[McG]

Originally Posted by Aleks

Why do you secondary? There's no reason to, and its just a waste of time I go primary to keg, and leave the time factor dependent on the yeast and style, or if I've pressure fermented or not (ie: Kolsch will sit for 4 wks min in primary, kveik IPA will sit 5 days in primary, Porter 4 wks, lager dependant on my cold crash schedule). I even had a speed IPA that I dumped 1L of yeast and hop trub from the bottom, and nothing more! I dispensed that whole amount from that same vessel because I was out of keg space, and it was just as good from glass 1 to the end.

The idea of sitting on the yeast causing a problem is completely unfounded until you get to macro volumes where pressure causes yeast lysis. At the homebrew volumes, they just have a nappy poo and don't cause any issues, off flavors, or anything to your beer. I promise. In fact a little extra time sometimes lets them take care of some of their unfinished business, and also allows the yeast cake time to develop so its less likely to cloud your beer when you move it!

Also, and MOST importantly, your beer is sensitive to oxygen, and the way to quality beer is an oxygen free process (pressure fermenting, closed transfers, C02 flushing, etc). Transferring to a secondary does nothing except oxidize your beer making it taste bad.

Stop secondarying!

This is definitely something that I’ve been considering for some time. I tend to have quite a number of beer and cider sitting in carboys for awhile to do exactly what you describe. Unfortunately my primary fermentation lids don’t have airlocks on them and the kreizen explodes out of the carboys if I do primary beer in them. I do the ciders directly in the carboys so they are essentially in the primary as you describe.

I see that I can drill the solid lids and use a grommet and airlock. Maybe I will try that one one of my primary lids.