For years it was my practice to rack to a secondary carboy and cold crash to help with clearing. I would sometimes leave the beer in secondary for as long as 60 days.
I’ve been reading that their is really no need to rack off anymore. Can I still chill the beer down after fermentation has stopped leaving it on the yeast?
That’s what I do. Once FG has been reached I cold crash for a couple of days, add gelatin, and let sit until I am ready to package. I only transfer off the yeast if it needs significant time to age.
These are low gravity ales so I should be OK. And you add the gelatin too? Interesting. What if you want to save the yeast? Wash it as I normally would?
From what I understand, washing is no longer recommended by everyone. In fact I’ve heard more people talk about how they used to wash and don’t anymore than the other way around.
I am also in the no secondary, no wash club. The fact that you are cooling your beer after fermentation should help with yeast health, keeping both autolysis and worry about re-harvesting to a minimum.
No secondary for me either…in terms of reusing yeast, I just overbuild my starters. I figure this gives me a cleaner yeast that is unaffected by the gravity or hoppiness of whatever I am brewing.
Lately I also have been making extra starters from a new yeast pack rather than harvesting from a finished brew–not that much more work for much cleaner yeast.
I don’t rack to secondary much anymore. I just bottled a schwarzbier that was in primary for 8 weeks. Clear as a bell and tasted great too.
So two starters from one pack. I only have one stir plate. With your method I would need a second? Or do you start another way.
No, a second stir plate isn’t needed. (Nor is even one–I’ve stopped using mine: I use the shaken–not stirred-method, and it’s been working great.) The simpler method to make a larger starter, save half (decant and pour into a Mason jar), and then use the other half for the brew at hand. I got this idea from others on this forum.
This is my method. I would make a large starter then split into 4 pint mason jars for later brews. Cleaner yeast was my thinking over washing as I felt I was getting muddled flavors from those repitches. WTBS, I may stop doing this since I only brew every 1-2 months and I get a 15% discount at my LHBS.
To add to OP, I had a conversation with the owner of a local brewery where I live. He said most people don’t leave their beer on the yeast long enough. He said at least a month for most beers excluding IPAs. FWIW, IMO he brews some of the best beers in the Denver area.
As long as you are storing the beer in a cool enough location so as to reduce cell autolysis, it is OK to leave the beer on the yeast and NOT transfer to secondary. Unless you are practicing airless transfers into airless vessels, you are probably doing more damage by transferring to secondary.
What was his reasoning for that?
Ha! I can’t remember exactly since most of the lineup is around 10% and I had one more than I should’ve.