What is the benefit of secondary fermentation?
- Dec 04, 2021
- 62
- tiantai
Using the word ‘fermentation’ in ‘secondary fermentation’ in beer fermentation tank is a bit misleading and it causes many brewers to think that it is simply a continuation of the primary fermentation.In fact, beer should never be moved into a secondary fermenter until active fermentation has completed. This means that you should have stable final gravity hydrometer readings in your primary beer conical fermenter for several days in a row. Yes, there might be an extremely small amount of yeast activity that continues on in the secondary in beer fermenters, but it’s comprised mostly of the yeast cleaning up any by-products and other waste that they have produced during the active phase.
A better way to think of secondary fermentation is to simply call it the conditioning phase. This captures any of the reasons that you would normally use a secondary fermenter in the first place. By the way, I just wrote a whole article on how to stop fermentation that you might want to check out if you are interested in eliminating all fermentation during the secondary phase. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the benefits of using a secondary fermenter.
What is the benefit of secondary fermentation?
Even though I’ve already said that secondary fermentation isn’t entirely necessary, there are still many ways that it can create a positive impact on your beer’s taste and clarity when done correctly. While you wouldn’t necessarily see a difference in a basic beer, things change quickly with specialty beers, big beers, and the like. If you are wondering what’s the point of a secondary fermentation, let’s look at a list.
Here are the main benefits of using a secondary fermentation:
Reduces off-flavors – After yeast have eaten up all of the sugar during primary fermentation they will settle down and start to eat up some other materials inside the beer. Eventually, after a few months or so, they can start a process called autolysis in which they will start eating up dead yeast at the bottom of the fermenter. This process can produce compounds that taste like burnt rubber which isn’t a great thing to have in your beer!
Clarification – Yeast will eventually die off and fall down into the trub of your fermenter, forming a cake of yeast. Racking into a secondary fermenter will remove this cake and allow more yeast to fall out of suspension, clarifying the beer. You can also add fining agents to the primary fermenter to clarify the beer and then rack it into a secondary fermenter to further condition.
Dry hopping – Certain beers, particularly IPAs, can benefit from having extra hops added to the fermenter after fermentation is complete. These ‘dry hops’ will add extra aroma and flavor to your beer without adding bitterness.
Flavor additions – There are many flavor additions that work best when added after fermentation is complete rather than during the boil. These could include spices, fruits, chocolate, coffee, and other ingredients.
Long-term aging and conditioning – Certain styles of beer can benefit from extending conditioning time. Typically, this will include your big beer styles such as Barleywines but it could also be used to mellow out a Double IPA or let the flavors come together on an Imperial stout
If you are planning to open a brewery. TIANTAI BrewTech could help you answer your questions and supply the brewery equipment system. We supply 2-150bbl complete beer brewing brewery equipment system including malt milling equipment, brewhouse equipment, fermenters, brite beer tanks, beer bottling machine,beer canning machine, beer kegging
machine, hopping machine, yeast propagation equipment. We also supply all auxiliary brewery systems like steam heating pipe and valves, water treatment, filter, air compressor etc. Everything in brewery are
all in our list.
If you are interested in any beer brewery equipment, please feel free to contact us.
Vicky Shao
Sales Manager
[email protected]
A better way to think of secondary fermentation is to simply call it the conditioning phase. This captures any of the reasons that you would normally use a secondary fermenter in the first place. By the way, I just wrote a whole article on how to stop fermentation that you might want to check out if you are interested in eliminating all fermentation during the secondary phase. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the benefits of using a secondary fermenter.
What is the benefit of secondary fermentation?
Even though I’ve already said that secondary fermentation isn’t entirely necessary, there are still many ways that it can create a positive impact on your beer’s taste and clarity when done correctly. While you wouldn’t necessarily see a difference in a basic beer, things change quickly with specialty beers, big beers, and the like. If you are wondering what’s the point of a secondary fermentation, let’s look at a list.
Here are the main benefits of using a secondary fermentation:
Reduces off-flavors – After yeast have eaten up all of the sugar during primary fermentation they will settle down and start to eat up some other materials inside the beer. Eventually, after a few months or so, they can start a process called autolysis in which they will start eating up dead yeast at the bottom of the fermenter. This process can produce compounds that taste like burnt rubber which isn’t a great thing to have in your beer!
Clarification – Yeast will eventually die off and fall down into the trub of your fermenter, forming a cake of yeast. Racking into a secondary fermenter will remove this cake and allow more yeast to fall out of suspension, clarifying the beer. You can also add fining agents to the primary fermenter to clarify the beer and then rack it into a secondary fermenter to further condition.
Dry hopping – Certain beers, particularly IPAs, can benefit from having extra hops added to the fermenter after fermentation is complete. These ‘dry hops’ will add extra aroma and flavor to your beer without adding bitterness.
Flavor additions – There are many flavor additions that work best when added after fermentation is complete rather than during the boil. These could include spices, fruits, chocolate, coffee, and other ingredients.
Long-term aging and conditioning – Certain styles of beer can benefit from extending conditioning time. Typically, this will include your big beer styles such as Barleywines but it could also be used to mellow out a Double IPA or let the flavors come together on an Imperial stout
If you are planning to open a brewery. TIANTAI BrewTech could help you answer your questions and supply the brewery equipment system. We supply 2-150bbl complete beer brewing brewery equipment system including malt milling equipment, brewhouse equipment, fermenters, brite beer tanks, beer bottling machine,beer canning machine, beer kegging
machine, hopping machine, yeast propagation equipment. We also supply all auxiliary brewery systems like steam heating pipe and valves, water treatment, filter, air compressor etc. Everything in brewery are
all in our list.
If you are interested in any beer brewery equipment, please feel free to contact us.
Vicky Shao
Sales Manager
[email protected]
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