brew radio

oconn

http://radio.craftbrewer.org/

aussie brew talk.....

bigears

Here's a couple of others (US based)

www.basicbrewingradio.com
www.thebrewingnetwork.com

Some interesting stuff on both. One topic that's come up a lot recently is the issue of secondary fermentation. I know most of us started with the belief that secondary fermentation was important, not just for clearing the beer, but especially for getting the beer off the spent yeast for avoidance of off flavours. If you read Palmer's HowtoBrew for example this was stated as a fact. Now it appears a lot of the brewing gurus have changed their mind. Palmer no longer advocates the use of a secondary. In another interview a guy called Dave Hogsdon who is the head honcho at Wyeast says the same and it's a view that's becoming popular.

oblivious

Basic brewing radio has some nice video podcasts

oblivious

bigears wrote:

In another interview a guy called Dave Hogsdon who is the head honcho at Wyeast says the same and it's a view that's becoming popular.

I wonder how many of them still bottle their beer?

bigears

That's a good point.

I think the main thrust of their argument is that every time you expose the beer to air i.e. transfer to secondary, transfer to bottling bucket you are increasing the risk of oxidisation due to chance of exposure to ocxygen.

I suppose if you leave the beer in primary for several weeks it will be relatively clear, especially if you cold condition for a few days before bottling...

oblivious

Very true.

Your beer should taste good out of the primary. Condition may reduce some of the hotness of higher alcohols; I find all that yeast doesn’t let the beer come through properly. A hefe or wit may be good one to bottle/keg straight for the primary.

But I think for largering you beer need to do a secondary

bigears

This is why these podcasts really got my interest, because some of these guys were advocating pimary only even for lagering which I would have thought was a big no-no. I was discussing this on another forum and I reposted something I had seen elsewhere, Now that I've stolen the post once I don't feel bad about doing it again

Some of the people we all learned from - John Palmer etc have gone back on their long held belief in racking of the yeast cake.
John Palmer states on a Basic Brewing Radio podcast that he never racks for most beers, and leaves the beer in primary for up to 6 weeks with no detrimental effects.
Jamil Zainasheff states on a Brewing Network podcast that he no longer racks at all, not even for lagers. Leaves 4 weeks ("or whatever") and then straight into the keg.
Name dropping a bit I know, and I know brewing is all about your experience, your understanding and your enjoyment. And its you that has to drink it.
But most if not all serious homebrewers would have been indoctrinated to rack to secondary by howtobrew(.com) and now John Palmer himself says he never does and no longer recommends it.

Both Jamil and Palmer mention that the yeast cake will continue to do a lot of work, cleaning up, consuming stuff that shouldn't be in your finished beer, and that you should just let it.

I'm all for that, you don't have to sanitise another fermenter, don't have to worry about cleanliness or oxidation.
Bulk priming is a reason I'd consider racking, but I've never had any carbonation problems to date simply sticking a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle as I go.

noby

Just wondering, If you leave your beer in primary for the duration, is the yeast cake then unsuitable for racking a new beer on to?
In other words, would a good reason to rack to secondary be to allow you to reuse the yeast?

I'm guessing if I was head honcha at Wyeast I would prefer people to buy a new packet every time. [/cynical hat]

oblivious

If you leave it in the primary for along time you may have more dead yeast, but I suppose there should be enough to start fermentation in a second batch. You probably will get better result for a normal gravity beer. Its worth a shot!

bigears

I'm guessing if I was head honcha at Wyeast I would prefer people to buy a new packet every time. [/cynical hat]

I'm sure he would Having said that he stated in the podcast that you can 'wash' the yeast:

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hbrew/hbyewash.htm
(I'm not too sure how the yeast washing technique would work for dried yeast, maybe somebody else has tried this? Might be more trouble than it's worth)

A lot of people supposedly pitch directly onto the yeast cake after primary and claim it works fine. I haven't yet tried this but I'm planning on it. My current beer will be in primary for almost two weeks before I rack it into the keg. This time around I'm skipping secondary. From what I can tell the beer has almost dropped clear already. I was planning on pitching a new batch directly on to the yeast cake but I won't be kegging and brewing on the same day.