Racking Question

[garymud]

When raking beer when is the right to to do this? how far into the fermentation process??

[Rod]

I usually rack after 5 days , leave it another 5 and bulk prime and bottle

racking , in my opinion , gives me a better beer definitely cleaner

[warra48]

Rack by all means, if that's what you want to do.
However, before you do it, think about why you want to do it. Is there a particular reason for doing it?
If not, maybe you might think about leaving well enough alone.
There is nothing wrong with leaving it in the fermenter for 2 weeks before bottling, and it allows the yeast to clean up after itself.
Your choice.

PS. Lets not start another to rack or not to rack series of posts. It's a personal choice, and we'll never agree on a definitive answer as to the benefits v downsides of racking v not racking.

[Bizier]

There is nothing wrong with leaving it in the fermenter for 2 weeks before bottling, and it allows the yeast to clean up after itself

I agree, I rack and bulk prime, but I had some of my dad's beers over the weekend and they were much clearer than anything I have ever done, and with a single fermenter... just goes to show what you can achieve if you are careful and patient. - These were so clear that they took ages to carb up, and didn't have enough sediment to lightly cover the bottom of a bottle.

I have recently been only racking to bulk prime after 2 weeks of primary (for ales), and they have been turning out well.

[Chris]

I've never believed in raking a beer myself- as warra said, why do it if you don't have any leaves on the surface?

As for racking, I like the 7-7-14 method.

7 days primary, 7 secondary, 14 cc or lagering.

[inark]

Do you guys use a second fermenter to bulk prime or is a bucket with a tap fine?

This was the process i was thinking of... do you think its a little over board?
I was going to use gelatine... then run it through a 1 micron filter i got off ebay into a bucket/fermenter for bulk priming and then filtered again into the bottles.

[warra48]

I rarely rack, and don't bulk prime. (OK, I bulk primed once, just to see what all the fuss was about, and promptly went back to my little sugar measure).

However, either a second fermenter, bucket etc with a tap will be fine.

You can buy 20 or 25 litre water containers, which will do the job nicely, at Bunnings or camping stores. They also sell taps. These containers are food grade as they are designed for water storage for human consumption.

Whatever you use, be sure to sanitise it properly. No point losing a beer at that stage of the process.

[inark]

Thanks warra didnt even think about that... shape doesnt really matter but the material does.

Yeah im pretty OCD when it comes to cleaning everything, my mates reckon i go well over the top but i dont like leaving anything to chance that one of my brews might come out tasting like brake fluid... love the amber fluid too much to risk that