fermenting time

[obaldy1]

i have only ever ( about 15 kits! :party: ) kept the first fermentation in the vessel for max of 8 days, reading some of the posts in here some keep it much longer, what roughly is the max before its likely to go bad? :wha:

 

[obaldy1]

ps. its a milestone crusader for first time (any reviews on this?)

 

[simon04]

Personally, I only leave for 7 days..... really becuase I brew at the weekend, and rack off the following weekend...

I don't know the true answer to your question, but the way I understand it, the longer it's left, the more risk of dead yeast cells affecting flavour.

It's also possible to brew without racking into secondary - but I don't like to do it that way.

 

[pittsy]

3 weeks is a safe time , longer is asking for trouble ,

 

[NickW]

4 weeks is common. 8 days isn't really enough for the time for the yeast to clear up.

 

[graysalchemy]

I drop to secondary once fermentation is complete then let it sit for another few days at fermentation temp then cool to allow the beer to clear bright before bottling a week later so about 2-3 weeks in total but most definitely with a transfer to a secondary.

 

[biggtime]

I'm interested in the 'standard approach' here too, if there is one. I've been going for about 10 days in primary FV, then put in secondary (pressure barrel for 10-14 days), then bottle. I wondered whether it would do much harm to speed things up by transferring to secondary to remove trub etc then bottling straight from that without leaving it to settle/mature further? So, in bottle after 10-11 days...

 

[PD]

If your bottling 10-11 days after brewing most likely your beer will still have lots of yeast in suspension that will drop out in the bottle.
Much better to let it fully ferment then rack to a secondary bucket ( they only cost £8 -£10 ! ) let the beer remain there cool for a few days and let the yeast drop there. Pay attention to sanitisation and cleanliness and theres very little risk to it.
You can then move your clean bright beer onto bottling kegging or what have you.

 

[graysalchemy]

As PD says beer needs to be bright before bottling otherwise you will have cloudy beer and posting 'Why is my Beer Cloudy'.

There are no short cuts in brewing if you want decent beer. :thumb:

 

[NickW]

Just my take on it, I don't secondary, I leave for two weeks at fermentation temp then cool for about a week at 10c. All in the same primary FV.I believe a lot of homebrewers do a similar thing now. Not had any problems with clarity as yet :thumb:

 

[biggtime]

There are no short cuts in brewing if you want decent beer. :thumb:

Not looking for shortcuts, just trying to see if there's any consensus :). I bottled straight from FV after only 8 days with my first couple of kit beers and beer was beautifully clean. My AG beers seem to take much longer to clear, and that's after conditioning for two weeks in secondary before bottling. Hence the question.