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Do You REALLY Need to Rack Your Brew?

City Steading Fermenstation

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Is racking your brew actually necessary… or just something everyone thinks you have to do? 🤔

In this episode of the Fermenstation Podcast, we break down the truth about racking (aka secondary fermentation or conditioning) and whether it’s worth the time, effort, and potential risk.

We’ve followed the “always rack” advice for years… but lately, we’ve been testing what happens when you don’t—and the results might surprise you.
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Related Videos:
When Not to Rack: STOP Racking Your Mead, Wine and Cider!
Racking and Bottling: Easy Beginner Mead - Racking and Bottling

🔥 Key Takeaway:
Racking isn’t bad… but it’s NOT always necessary. Timing matters more than tradition.

💬 Let us know in the comments:
Do you rack every batch—or have you stopped?

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#Homebrewing #MeadMaking #BrewingTips #WineMaking #Cider #Homebrew #BrewingPodcast #DIYBrewing #BrewBetter

20 Comments

@harvey195 6 months ago

The old guy who taught me to make Meade, used to call it racking to the final settling before bottling. I've been calling it the final settling for 40+ years. The first time I heard secondary fermentation, I had to go look it up.

@stevenmqcueen7576 5 days ago

In the early days of home beer brewing, the practice was to rack after fermentation substantially slowed down or stopped from a so-called "primary fermenter" (which was usually a large plastic pail covered with a thin sheet of plastic that was secured with string) to the "secondary fermenter" (typically, a glass carboy plugged with a one-hole stopper and an air lock). I imagine some people misunderstood "secondary fermenter" to imply that there was a separate bioreactive process known as "secondary fermentation" going on, when all it meant was "the second fermentation vessel."

@AdamDoesThing 6 months ago

When I started brewing I was so eager to get a finished product I racked my first brew about 5 times. I was way too hands on. Now I am lazy, overwhelmed, and have a ton of finished product already, so I leave them for weeks and they taste great.

@ghost01477 6 months ago

In my experience, I started without an auto syphon and it was moderately stressful and difficult. The syphon isn't only a practical choice, but a big convenience enhancement as well

@AndresAcebalDominguez 6 months ago

10:45 Hey Brian, It doesnt have to be hard, you can make a "Base Mead Recipe" in various strenghts (Id even say the "Your First Mead" is excelent for that) and flavor different ways (Ive uses Your Recipe (or very inspires with the black tea and stuff) and added things in conditioning with great results, give it a shot! Maybe a "How To Make 3 Meads at the same time" vídeo would be great!

Also thanks You two for everything

@dhudach 6 months ago

I'm with you about the concept of secondary fermentation. I'm only 4 years into this craft and I don't know enough about the history and all of the nuances. But for me, when "primary" fermentation is done, I rack to separate my brew from the waste and then to make adjustments prior to initial aging. So yes, to your point, I'm racking for my conditioning phase, and I might make many adjustments over the course of weeks or even months.

@bigwetbilly1056 6 months ago

When racking into primary I like to take the “lost” product and pour it into a tall skinny glass. After covering it and chilling it in the fridge for a day or two the remaining product separates from the lees. I usually get a glass of mead from that which I can use for a rough tasting experience with sweetening and whatnot!

@alexcan669 5 months ago

I always thought they meant secondary fermentation from the malolactic fermentation that happens with wine. In France they tend to leave some white wines in their sediment particularly champagne because it brings some interesting flavors to the wine look up batonnage as well it is very interesting

@Landogarner83 6 months ago

When my family still made cider we never racked. It never even ocurred to us to rack because no one did that. Of course the 20L balloon bottles we used were not just great fermenters but also great for storage. Just fill a pitcher for daily use and the rest stays in the big bottles. That was no problem because we never bottled our cider and none of it ever made it to a full year.
Now i am going to rack my first mead tomorrow to get rid of floaty berries. Guess times change and kinda still stay the same.

@richardterry3833 6 months ago

What impresses me use your one handed racking technique!

@raffastage 6 months ago

When winemakers rack, one must consider that that they have fruit floating, that's why it's mandatory. When one reads "sur lie" a first rack has already been done, so the wine has mostly yeast in it.

@RJ420NL 6 months ago

I hate sediment in my brew🤮 so I rack several times to be sure nothing else falls out before I bottle.

@timothyhephner8176 5 months ago

I have a conical fermenter for our 10 gal batches. So we have stopped racking except when we do a floured beer.

@DustinBlanchard87 6 months ago

Only problem is had with racking was the siphon was a pain to put the hose on. After that it's easy and I paid 10 bucks for one similar to yours. A little more because the hose cost me like 1.50 lol. But yeah don't rack until your going to do something with it like sweetening or bottling.

@MrWolfheart111 6 months ago

Thank You. 🍉🍊🍌🍎🍑

@Astro_rascle 6 months ago

slightly off topic but i would love if you guys did a video on how you clean your brewing equipment after quite messy brews. Also love the video as always.

@mechrior 6 months ago

From what I understand so far the whole "secondary fermentation" is just a holdover from beer brewing when they move it over to a keg off the main lees and then add the sugar to carbonate in the keg.
That might just be my interpretation of the term, but it is the one that makes the most sense to me.

As Brian said, you do not want to disturb the force......... the "cohesive force" of the liquid. We all know what disturbances in the force mean!

I heard them talk about the corker....... my mind went right to a game but different "Corker's Bad Wine Day: The Bottling"

@vintage1994 6 months ago

I've started the 5 gallon traditional fermentation thing where I flavor in secondary and I love it. You should consider it just to save you both time. You could edit in the recipe video of the 5 gallon every time since that step is fairly constant. Your fan base (the CSBase?) is smart enough to get it. Plus if you buy the 60lb bucket of honey from Costco Business Center you get a free food grade fermenter! 😂

@kobrewing 6 months ago

My first few brews doing a secondary weren't that great, but of course the variables changed every brew. Not wanting to spend a fortune fermenting in a keg and doing closed transfers with C02 have both been easier than using a siphon and have limited previous issues I had with oxygenation.

@MarcosVallejo-k3j 6 months ago

Am actually going to do what you just mentioned. I Made a 2 gallon plus of raspberry cider couple of weeks ago and I racked to a 2 gallon open mouth and it’s to the rim after it read 1.000 sg. Now I will split it to 1 gallon, jugs. I will backsweten both one I will carbonate using the 1 gallon kegorator And the other one I will add spices
Making sure I’ll pasteurize the spiced one. First time so let’s see how it turns out