Length of time in fermenter?

um7y1h83ge06nx

I have my first brew going at the moment, wahey! All is looking good so far.

One question though. What are people's thoughts about the length of time to leave the beer in the fermenter before bottling? I'm not doing a secondary fermentation, just primary.

Obviously you want to take hydrometer readings to determine how soon you can bottle but I have read that if you leave it for a while longer, the yeast will "clean" things up and improve the beer. Therefore I'm considering giving it a total of 4 weeks before bottling. How does this sound?

Is there any disadvantage to leaving it this long?

Thanks!

BeerNut

Should be fine. Most things I've read say that it's only after six or more weeks that you run the risk of autolysis.

mayto

You will be able to leave it for four weeks before bottling just fine. I myself would probably bottle it sooner as you would be waiting at least six weeks for bottles to be ready, thats prob me just being impatient though .

oblivious

Kairi Rapid Threesome wrote: »

I'm not doing a secondary fermentation, just primary.Thanks!

Good man sensibleness approach


I do two weeks generally, but four at ambient temp should be grand

sharingan

I have had problems with leaving wines on the yeast cake too long.

I dont have a taste reference for autolysis, so I cant say for sure if that is what it is. Might run it by one of the guys in the beer club.

In this heat you might need to leave your beer in primary for a while, at least to clarify a bit more. I find it difficult to get the beer fully finished in less than 3-4 weeks anyway.

engrish?

I've moved the beer from the primary into the secondary and I disposed the yeast cake. Its going to be brewed 2 months by the time I get to keg it - will it be ok since its not sitting on the yeast cake?

Reason: I returned to brewing after a 5 month hiatus. When I went to bottle last week I found a mouse infestation in my shed. They were living in with all my bottles which had mouse dirt all over them. I've chucked them all and I cant afford to get kegs until next month

sharingan

engrish? wrote: »

I've moved the beer from the primary into the secondary and I disposed the yeast cake. Its going to be brewed 2 months by the time I get to keg it - will it be ok since its not sitting on the yeast cake?

When you prime, add some more yeast. It doesn't need to be fancy yeast, just something that will make bubbles.

TheBrewMeister

BeerNut wrote: »

Should be fine. Most things I've read say that it's only after six or more weeks that you run the risk of autolysis.

Yeast autolysis is dependent on the health of the yeast, strain, and most importantly - temperature.

Ive had really good yeast start to decay in as little as 2 weeks in the primary. Yeast autolysis tastes like it smells - decaying, earthy, pungent.

There's no benefit to leaving a finished beer on the yeast cake for longer than 5 days. Depending on what strain you use, (and I'm assuming we're talking ale yeast) the diacetyl levels will be as low as theyre going to be after 3 days. So leaving the beer to rest at room temp for 5 days is plenty.

In the professional world, we typically "crash" the beer after a total of 5-7 days post-ferment. Meaning, after it's finished fermenting, we let it sit at ale temps for 5-7 days, then we drop the temp of the beer to 0-1C.

So, if you have to wait to bottle or transfer off the yeast cake, try to get the beer somewhere as cool as possible to prevent autolysis.