For the first time after taking the advice of several on this forum, I skipped the secondary and went right to the keg. The brew is a Saison that spent 4-5 weeks in primary and ended below estimated final gravity from Beersmith.
I poured the first draft and it was opaque and almost creamy in appearance. The smell is overpowering yeasty. I am assuming that the yeast just settled and is coming out now. I used Wyeast’s Saison (don’t recall #) and force carbonated. I kegged the brew about a week ago, but just pressurized it initially, only force carbonating it last night.
Seems to have cleared a bit just with another night in the fridge.
Beer was brewed with a single infusion mash with some wheat and flaked maize, so I do expect cloudiness. It has gained some translucency and the overpowering yeast odor is diminishing. Still too yeasty to the tastebuds, but at least you can tell there is beer there too now.
My experiment of only using a primary fermenter was not very successful. Think it’ll be back to the ole reliable two step fermentations that have worked up until now. Sometimes you are better not tweaking something that works for you!
Gonna give the Saison a few more days cold conditioning and it should be good to go!
I am in the ‘skip the secondary’ camp, but I have the ability to chill my primary down to <40 degrees before I rack to my kegs. Reading between the lines of your post, it sounds like you racked at fermentation temp. Each yeast strain is different, of course, but it seems like you still had plenty of yeast in suspension. After racking and chilling, this all settled out to the bottom of your keg. Hence all the yeasty pints.
if i understand right, 4-5 weeks in primary then into keg for 24 hours of forced carbonation? i wouldn’t sell the “no secondary” short. you may just have to let things settle for a bit and carbonate better. you can always transfer to a new keg using co2 in a few weeks. this has the effect of being in a secondary. i don’t think letting it sit in primary the 5 weeks is a culprit here
first pull is always yeasty, cloudy and not that good. that one’s to pour out for your homies.
also, most of us let the beer cold condition/carbonate slowly via set it and forget it for a week before we tap. if you left something out warm, then put the keg in the fridge and shook it all around to carbonate it, I’m not suprised in the least witrh what came out.
give it time to settle and all will be fine.
I don’t secondary anything but big beers anymore, and I can read a book through my light lagers after only 2 weeks in the keg.
Great idea to throw primnary in the fridge, may try that. Carbonation was good, so I am happy with the method there, though I am sure I’ll tinker as the timeline allows. I tried a beer on day 2 and it was slightly better, not too concerned about the batch after the small change.
My daughter was admitted to the hospital and transferred three hours away, so I’ve been on the road and haven’t had another chance to try, but while at the hospital I have read Brew Like a Monk and started Farmhouse Ales so dying to try it now.