If you are familiar with home brewing or you have been following our home brew series you are sure to have a grasp on the process of homebrewing, put your beer kit, water, sugar and yeast in a tub to ferment then bottle with a bit of sugar to carbonate. Here we are going to introduce you to an extra optional stage known as the 2nd fermentation or conditioning.
The second fermentation stage is done by many brewers in order to improve the taste and quality of the beer, some brewers debate if the process is worth the extra hassle while others think the process is good to get rid of any leftover byproducts of the first fermentation.
Basically once your 1st fermentation is done instead of transferring the beer to bottles straight away you will be first siphoning the liquid off into a secondary fermenter for anywhere between 1 to 4 weeks. By siphoning the beer from the first fermenter you reduce the chance of bacteria or sediment from the first fermentation getting in also there is less chance of aerating the liquid, something you want to avoid. What happens now is the remaining yeast eats more of the remaining sugars that was missed during the first carbonation and with less sediment sitting at the bottom of fermenter this produces a clearer fully fermented beer. The video above shows a guy putting his beer into a 2nd fermentation carboy.
So is secondary fermentation worth the trouble? With the extra time it takes and the added risks of introducing bacteria we don’t bother to do it ourselves, but some people swear by the process, its especially popular in the USA and Canada. what’s your thoughts or preference? Leave a comment below.
