Or dont you bother with secondary? I filled all four of my 1 gal jugs with an experiment, only to realize Ive got nothing (except milk jugs I guess) to rack the primary to…whats the process for your small batchers? any advice about helpful tools, like a mini-siphon, etc?
Generally no need to transfer to a secondary vessel for secondary fermentation. It is better to secondary in the same vessel as the primary fermentation to avoid oxidation and risk of infection.
^^^^ This. I rarely, if ever secondary no matter what the batch size. ^^^
^^^ I concur with all the above. The risk/reward of racking is not worth it. Yeast autolysis isn’t as big of an issue in Homebrew size batches. I closed transfer to kegs for aging when I have about 5 pts of gravity left aka spunding. That way any oxygen that was potentially picked up will likely be scavenged by the still active yeast and you get the added benefit of self carbonation.
For a while I was using a 2 gallon plastic bucket for primary, filling it with about 1.25 gallons of wort. Then I racked to glass 1-gallon jugs and could fill them with very little headspace.
These days I just keep it in primary until it’s time to package.
Just one thing to add: Beyond the risk of infection and unnecessary exposure to oxygen, you’ll add to the volume losses, which are already large, percentage wise, in small batch brewing.
There is no screaming…there are simply different ideas of how to do things. Please don’t get hyperbolic.
I’ve got some glass 1-gallon pickle jars that I’ve started using for tiny batches.
I generally don’t rack to secondary. When I do it is because I am splitting a batch off into smaller volumes or racking a batch onto an adjunct (generally fruit) and need the added space the primary trub occupies.
With smaller batches the risk of oxidizing your beer grows because the surface volume is proportionally greater unless you have a lot of equipment specifically designed for these small volumes. If you are racking the beer into another vessel there should be a good reason for it–like packaging–rather than doing it because brewing lore says you need to.
If you are going to use a secondary just be sure to purge it with Co2 before racking and you should be fine.
+1
I do both before and after…belt and suspenders
^^^^ CO2 is inexpensive insurance, kinda like yeast nutrient.
If you mean purge the headspace afterward then, yes. Absolutely!
Yep!