secondary fermentation

[ahuckle]

hello everyone ,new to brewing ,but the bug has bitten.
I am having problems when I primary ferment ,say for 2 weeks ,then transfer to secondary fermentor for about 1 week then bottle, but I find that bottle carbonation is not great. When I only use the primary the carbonation is great. I find that if I have a test opening of a bottle after 1 week the bubbles are just not enough.any ideas?

[trucker5774]

If you have done primary for about 2 weeks I would go straight to bottles as there will still be some suspended yeast to convert the priming sugar to CO2. If you are going to secondary after that (no secondary fermentation will take place as it is already complete) you are just using the 2nd vessel as a settling tank for more yeast to drop out. This lack of yeast is why you have little cerbonation

[Northern Brewer]

You could also get away with less than two weeks in the primary. I normally aim for around 10 -14 days but recently had to bottle and keg a brew after only 7 days, and the results have worked out just fine.