Secondary and Bottling

[Smitty27]

I was just wondering after fermentation has completed, whether it takes a couple of days or weeks is there any benefit to letting it sit in secondary or should you just bottle it and let the beer start bottle conditioning? Just wondering if I'm wasting my time letting it sit in secondary for longer instead of just bottling it and letting it condition longer in the bottle?

Last week I bottled my dubbel after two weeks in primary and secondary. I'm going to open a bottle up after two weeks to see how things went. This is my test batch to see if I'm going to like this recipe or not and then make a 5 gallon batch that I want to bottle condition for a couple months but i don't know if there is a benefit to longer periods of secondary fermentation.

Also, what temperature should I be storing these bottle at for conditioning.

Thanks!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Racking to the secondary is not a requirement. It can be useful for dry hopping, adding fruit, oak chips, etc. I rarely go to a secondary anymore. I dry hop right in the primary after fermentation is complete. The only benefit I see is less yeast in the bottles, but I favor highly flocculent strains so it normally isn't an issue. I also cold crash, so that helps a lot of the yeast settle out.

I bottle condition at room temp, then put them in the fridge for 1-2 weeks before drinking.

 

[Smitty27]

Thanks, the only reason I really do it is for a cleaner product but didn't know if it could possibly add to the beer in any way other than adding extras to it. The dubbel is for a special occasion so I want it to be the best it can.

Thanks again!