And I’m back, continuing the month-long series on homebrewing in honor of National Homebrew Day which was May 7th.  This is also American Craft Beer Week, so get out there and support the small and independent craft brewers that are bringing tradition, quality and passion back to an industry that got hijacked by gargantuan-batch manufacturers that cater more to frat-boys than to beer lovers.  A lot of the craft brewers got their start brewing 5 gallons at a time at home for their own enjoyment — you just never know where your dreams and interests will take you.

Last week we did all the hard work of brewing the actual beer, and we waited patiently while it fermented.  Patience is a virtue, and you’ll need plenty of it if you’re homebrewing.

We continue after the jump below…

As I stated before, secondary fermentation is a misnomer, and is more accurately a “conditioning” process.  Now that the yeasties have made pigs of themselves, gorging on all the lovely sugars, they’re ready to clean up behind themselves… as is only right for a dinner guest.  To quote John Palmer from his book How To Brew:

The conditioning process is a function of the yeast. The vigorous, primary stage is over, the majority of the wort sugars have been converted to alcohol, and a lot of the yeast are going dormant; but there is still yeast activity. During the earlier phases, many different compounds were produced by the yeast in addition to ethanol and CO2, e.g., acetaldehyde, esters, amino acids, ketones- diacetyl, pentanedione, dimethyl sulfide, etc. Once the easy food is gone, the yeast start re-processing these by-products. Diacetyl and pentanedione are two ketones that have buttery and honey-like flavors. These compounds are considered flaws when present in large amounts and can cause flavor stability problems during storage. Acetaldehyde is an aldehyde that has a pronounced green apple smell and taste. It is an intermediate compound in the production of ethanol. The yeast reduce these compounds during the later stages of fermentation.

The yeast also produce an array of fusel alcohols during primary fermentation in addition to ethanol. Fusels are higher molecular weight alcohols that often give harsh solvent-like tastes to beer. During secondary fermentation, the yeast convert these alcohols to more pleasant tasting fruity esters. Warmer temperatures encourage ester production.

Secondary fermentation can be done by either leaving the beer in the original fermenter, or by “racking” it off into a clean fermenter thus removing it from the “trub” that forms in the bottom of the primary.  The trub is composed of dead and settled yeast, settled proteins, grain and hop residue, and can range from ½” thick, to many inches.  There is a division in the homebrew community about the necessity to rack to a second vessel.  Some say that leaving the beer on the trub can cause an increase in off flavors, and that racking will prevent this.  Others say that the amount of time required for off flavors to occur far outdistances the time a brewer would leave a beer on the trub to complete secondary fermentation, and that racking introduces an unnecessary infection or oxygenation risk.  It’s up to the individual brewer to determine what is best for them.  Myself, I prefer to rack to a secondary vessel.

Leaving a beer in a fermenter to complete this second phase this is known as “bulk conditioning”, and is more efficient for the yeast than if the beer is put directly into bottles.  Additionally, since there is considerably less activity from the yeast, there is less turbulence in the beer, and this allows protein solids, and dead and dormant yeast to “flocculate”, or clump together and settle out of suspension.  This causes to beer to clear up considerably and will contribute to the overall taste and stability of the beer.

As before, thorough cleaning and fastidious sanitization of everything that touches the beer is absolutely necessary to avoid contamination or bacterial growth.  This is a long journey, and you don’t want to derail it by cutting corners.

Where, when we originally brewed the beer, we used a fermenter of a larger capacity than our brew to allow sufficient headspace, we want to avoid that extra headspace from here on out — in what seems like a contradiction, we’re avoiding the introduction of oxygen to the beer.  At the start, the yeast required that extra oxygen to reproduce, and it is consumed completely in those early stages.  Going forward, sufficient exposure to oxygen can cause staling in your beer, affecting its flavor and longevity.  Most commonly a 5 GAL carboy is used to secondary in, but a 5 GAL food grade plastic bucket is also sufficient.

Start by moving your primary fermenter to an elevated location anywhere from several hours, to a day, before you’re ready to make the transfer.  This will allow any of the sediment in the trub that stirs up from the move to settle back down again.  Be sure to cover or wrap the carboy to prevent light exposure until you’re ready.

There are several tools available to siphon the beer from one vessel to the other, but there are two very common ones to mention.  The first — and least expensive — is a racking cane, which is a rigid plastic or metal tube that typically has a 90° bend on one end, and a plastic cap on the other that helps reduce the transfer of material from the trub.   Flexible vinyl line is attached to the end with the bend, a siphon is started, and the other end of the tube is inserted into your empty fermenter.  It is worth noting here that you should not use your mouth to start the siphon as that will introduce contaminates.  The other tool is an auto-siphon, which is composed of a racking cane that fits inside of a larger tube, and uses a rubber seal between the two to create suction when they are slid apart, then back together — this is, in my opinion, worth the difference in price for the convenience and ease of use it provides.

Place your empty and sanitized fermenter on a surface lower than the primary.  If using a no-rinse sanitizer such as StarSan, you will be left, as before, with a white sudsy foam in your carboy after draining.  This foam is nothing to worry about, and in fact is beneficial to the yeasts during the fermentation stage… there is a phrase in the homebrew community: “don’t fear the foam”.  Insert the racking cane into the primary and hold it with the bottom tip approximately 3″ below the surface of the beer.  If you’re using an auto-siphon, simply put the other end in the empty fermenter, positioned so that when the liquid flows, it flows out smoothly without splashing, then start the siphon with a long, smooth stroke.  If using a standard racking cane, start your siphon as you prefer, then insert the tube into the empty fermenter, positioning it so that you minimize splashing as well.

The minimizing of splashing, in any context, is also known as doing so “quietly”, as in racking quietly, pouring quietly, etc.  This reduces the amount of oxygen that will be introduced into the liquid.

As the beer flows out of the primary, lower the tip of your racking cane to keep it below the surface.  As the surface approaches the bottom of the fermenter, you will need to be vigilant about keeping from drawing up too much of the trub from the bottom — remember, we’re doing this to remove the beer from as much of this material as possible — but it is impossible to avoid getting any of it without leaving a large proportion of beer behind, and we don’t want that.  *grins* A little bit won’t hurt.

When you reach the very bottom of the fermenter, you can gently tip it to concentrate the remaining liquid to one side, enabling you to siphon out as much as possible.  Once done, you should be left with the trub, and a little bit of beer.  The trub can be swirled around and added to a compost heap, or even poured directly into a garden as the dead yeast and proteins are a rich fertilizer.

Once you’re done, you should be left with just a few inches of headspace in the new fermenter.  Seal the fermenter and install a fresh, clean and sanitized airlock.  Return the fermenter to a dark, climate controlled space — and unless your environment is going to get above 75°F, you shouldn’t need the ice-chest water bath to keep it cool… the worst of the temperature sensitivity is past.  You may see some bubbling through the airlock for the first day or so, but it’s nothing to be alarmed about.  That’s just a bit of the CO2 that is dissolved in solution from fermentation being released by the agitation of racking.

Over the next two weeks, the yeast will do their job of cleaning up after themselves.  As they die or go dormant they will flocculate and settle to the bottom of the fermenter, as will more of the suspended proteins.  The beer will get clearer, and a small trub layer will form.  At the end of two weeks, we can bottle the beer, and prepare for the impossible wait before we can properly enjoy it.  *grins*

Shown below are three homebrews in secondary.  On the left is an “traditional”  orange-blossom mead (which will be racked from carboy to carboy over the course of several months as it clarifies), the center is an American pale ale (not looking very pale stored in bulk as it is), and the right is an oatmeal stout that is so dark that is borders on being black.

Next week we’ll tackle the next phase: bottling day.

Until then, I present you with a few links to small Austin (and neighboring) breweries and brew pubs of note.

• St. Arnold Brewing Company
  
• Live Oak Brewing Company
  
• Real Ale Brewing Company
• (512) Brewing Company
• Independence Brewing Company
• North by Northwest  Restaurant and Brewery
• The Draught House Pub & Brewery
• Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que