Author: Jake Huolihan

Back in the early days of homebrewing, it was customary for brewers to transfer their beer off of the trub resting at the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel into a secondary vessel for a period of conditioning before packaging. The main purpose of this step was to avoid picking up off-flavors caused by autolysis, or yeast cell death, which can lead to such undesirable characteristics as raw meat or burnt rubber.

At some point in the last decade, give or take, the practice of racking to a secondary came to be questioned by many, with brewers claiming the quality of available yeasts had improved so much that autolysis wasn’t as big of an issue, certainly lower than the increased risk of both oxidation and contamination that occurs when racking beer from one vessel to another. This thinking has permeated modern homebrewing. Nowadays, most brewers opt to ferment entirely in a single vessel, with many also choosing to add hops, fruit, wood, and other flavorings directly to primary.

My venture into homebrewing began after the paradigm shift, and while instructions still included recommendations to rack to a secondary, it never was a normal part of my process. The way I saw it, if commercial breweries were packaging from primary when the beer was finished fermenting, there was no homebrewers couldn’t either. And like many, it’s worked out rather well for me, I’ve never made a beer with noticeable autolysis off-flavors. However, most of my beers are packaged fairly soon after fermentation is complete, which left me wondering if the amount of time a beer is left to sit in primary has any impact.

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between beers packaged either immediately after fermentation is complete or after 3 weeks of aging in primary.

| METHODS |

The goal being to emphasize any differences caused by extended time in primary, I went with a clean Märzen for this xBmt.

Stuck In The Terminal

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 22.4 IBUs 6.9 SRM 1.055 1.014 5.4 % Actuals 1.055 1.018 4.9 % Fermentables Name Amount % Weyermann Vienna 7.5 lbs 61.22 Munich II (Weyermann) 3.75 lbs 30.61 Odyssey Pilsner 1 lbs 8.16 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Hallertau Magnum 8 g 60 min Boil Pellet 11.5 Perle 15 g 30 min Boil Pellet 8 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Harvest (L17) Imperial Yeast 72% 50°F - 60°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 49 | Mg 0 | Na 8 | SO4 38 | Cl 61 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I started off by collecting the volume of RO water needed for this 11 gallon batch.

After adjusting the water to my desired profile, set my electric controller to heat it up then moved on to milling the grain.

With the water adequately heated, I added the grains and stirred to incorporate before checking the mash temperature.

The mash was left to rest for 60 minutes, during which I stirred every 15 minutes.

I weighed out the kettle hop addition during the mash rest.

When the mash was complete, I collected the sweet wort in my kettle and brought it to a boil.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes, after which it was quickly chilled to slightly warmer than my groundwater temperature.

A refractometer reading revealed the wort was right at the OG I’d planned.

The wort was split evenly between identical Brew Buckets before being hooked up to my glycol chiller and left to finish cooling to my desired fermentation temperature of 50°F/10°C. Using remnant wort from the kettle, I made a couple vitality starters using Imperial Yeast L17 Harvest.

The starters were pitched 4 hours later and activity was noted just a few hours later. With diminished signs of fermentation activity observed 10 days after pitching, I gently raised the temperature to 58°F/14°C for a diacetyl rest. Hydrometer measurements taken from each batch at 13 days post-pitch showed both were sitting at the same FG.

Both beers were then chilled back down to 50°F/10°C and left for a day before being cooled further to 45°F/7°C. After another 2 days, I racked one of the beers to a CO2 purged keg while leaving the other in primary for extended aging.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer, which I keep at 38°F/3°C, slightly cooler than where the beer in primary was being held. After 3 weeks, I racked the primary-aged beer to a CO2 purged keg and placed it on gas next to the other beer in my keezer. I allowed both of these beers to lager for 4 weeks before serving them to tasters.

| RESULTS |

A total of 22 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 1 sample of the beer kegged when FG was reached and 2 samples of the extended primary beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. While 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to accurately identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, 13 (p=0.012) did, indicating participants in this xBmt were able to reliably distinguish a Märzen that was aged in the primary fermentor for 3 weeks from the same beer that was packaged when FG was reached.

The 13 participants who made the accurate selection on the triangle test were instructed to complete a brief preference survey comparing only the beers that were different. A total of 4 tasters reported preferring the beer packaged immediately after fermentation was complete, 2 said they liked the beer aged in primary for 3 weeks more, 5 had no preference despite noticing a difference, and 2 tasters reported perceiving no difference.

My Impressions: Of the 5 triangle tests I attempted, I picked the odd-beer-out just 3 times, which really isn’t much better than chance. The beers were very similar to my palate, but if I noticed any differences, they were related mostly to the apparent flavors of older, oxidized beer.



| DISCUSSION |

The idea of leaving beer in the vessel it was fermented in for any amount of time after the completion of fermentation used to be universally condemned by brewers, though these days is considered standard practice for many. As anyone who has experienced the off-flavors associated with autolysis is well aware, it’s not pleasant at all, definitely something to be avoided. For this reason, the practice of racking to a secondary makes practical sense, and the fact tasters in this xBmt were able to tell apart a beer aged in primary for 3 weeks from one packaged when fermentation was complete suggests the extended contact time had a perceptible flavor impact.

While differences were seemingly present between these xBmt beers, there’s no way of knowing what the cause was, particularly whether or not autolysis was the culprit. Some brewers actually view a brief period of aging in primary as a good way to ensure undesirable fermentation byproducts are taken care of, in fact it’s not too uncommonly recommended to proceed with packaging 3 to 4 weeks after pitching yeast. It’s possible this or some other unknown factor is responsible for these results.

My standard approach since I began brewing a few years ago has been to package soon after fermentation is complete, my main impetus admittedly being impatience– the sooner the beer is kegged, the sooner I get to drink it. Going into this xBmt, I didn’t actually expect the beer aged in primary to be any different from the one kegged sooner and was surprised with the findings. Seeing as I’ve been happy with the beers I make, I won’t be making any changes to my process, though in the event I end up leaving a beer in primary longer than planned, I won’t fret over it too much.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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