From brew-day to bottling, what's your average elapsed number of days?

[Richard_H]

It's interesting that some posters go with allowing the beer to 'sit' on the yeast for longer, like this, whereas myself and others bottle much sooner.

I actually set to and bottled the Cali Common I made just now. Because of the weather (I suppose) it went off like a train, has been at 1009 for a few days, was starting to clear 'a little'...

But just now, sat down with a cup of coffee, I'm thinking, I missed a trick there. I had two demi-johns. Why didn't I just bottle one, and leave the other 'sat on the yeast' for another week, and then bottle that, to see if I could detect any advantage? Oh well, too late now! Maybe another time.

From what you have posted earlier you probably aren't really missing a trick as such, 9 days is ample time for the yeast to finish fermenting and allow an extra few days to clean up etc. I have had some that can take up to 3 weeks to hit final gravity (Saison strains at lower temperatures and Lallemand Munich wheat spring to mind) but that is fairly rare.

I 'average' 14 days for most, but I have pushed it as far as 5 weeks for a few big beers due to other commitments and noticed no negative impact on the beer. If your fermenting your standard 23-30 litres then the beer is safe up to around the 6-7 week. If your brewing in bigger batches then you need to consider the weight of the beer sitting on the yeast as a reason to get it off the yeast cake sooner

 

[DavidDetroit]

Three weeks every time. I have then guaranteed that I only open the fermenter at bottling time. I'm sure the batches are done sooner but that's what I do.

 

[The Furnace Green Brewer]

My LME ales using CJJ Berry and Dave Lines recipes are taking about 10-14 days at 20 degrees but turn out very drinkable. I use and insulated jacket from a fast fermenter with 2 litre lemonade bottles with frozen salt water to maintain the temperature, changing the the bottles once a day.

 

[Merkin]

Minimum 10 days, but usually between 14 and 21.
Really depends on available storage space and having a free day.

 

[Tanglefoot]

I work on 14-18 days from brew day to packaging. I normally check the gravity on day 10 and do any dry hopping unless something is wrong. I move to cold crash on day 13-15 for a couple of days and then package at some point after that.

Exactly what I do.

I'd rather leave it for the sake of a few days even if krausen has dropped and I can see fermentation is past it's peak.
You may check after 6 days and think fine it's at predicted fg but if you leave it, it will drop a few more points
and clean itself up.

 

[bobukbrewer]

3.8% SMASH beers 6 days - wait 10 days then start drinking.

 

[obscure]

Generally 14 days, a lot of my beers are probably done by day 9 or 10 but as I only really have time to bottle on the weekend they typically get left for two weeks or more (I.e. if not ready on Day 14 it won’t be till day 21 at the earliest I will bottle) and so on. I’ve also sometimes left it for an extra week as I don’t have enough appropriate bottles to no ill effect.

Their have being exceptions I’ve being using Kweik lately and finding I can basically bottle on day 7 and drink on day 14 (once it has had time to carbonate), but more generally I follow the 2-2-2 rule so two weeks in primary two to carbonate and two to condition which for a typical bitter, mild stout etc. seems to give consistent good results.

 

[moto748]

Very interesting to read the responses to this thread. As one of the '9 or 10 days guys', what I think I take from this is, it wouldn't hurt to leave *some* of my brews 'on the yeast' for longer than I do; it won't hurt. I'm thinking about the clearing of the beer too. I'll bet all you experts have nothing but the thinnest dusting of a sediment in the bottom of the bottle! Mine are sometimes quite a bit more than that. ☺ Surely, if the beer stays in the secondary fermentor longer, some of that clearing process is taking place there instead of in the bottle. Hence, i assume, less sediment in the bottle. I would add that I'm thinking here of bitters, pale ales, etc

In my experience stouts all clear really quickly and brilliantly. So I think the shorter fermentor time is fine for them (I should add, I don't mean mega imperial stouts, I mean common-or-garden stuff).

I think also in the past I may have been keen to get brews bottled, just to give me access to the demi-johns for the next batch. But now I have enough demi-johns that that is no longer an issue.

 

[Nottsbeer]

I'm having a bit of a priming issue where my last 2 brews have not carbonated very well (I have a thread already about this). One brew may just be due to it being young. However, one poster suggested that after 14 days fermenting there may not be enough active yeast left, thus affecting priming. As some people on this thread also ferment for 14+ days, have you ever had any issues with priming? It is generally recommended to use the 2+2+2 method and I haven't heard of anyone else having issues so I'm not sure how to take that suggestion. Any feedback from longer fermenters welcome.

 

[foxbat]

Ale: 14 days
Lager: 21 days.

Fermenter to keg after the above elapsed time. No gravity readings taken except at kegging. I like a simple life.

 

[Ronin56]

I tend to use the 2+2+2 model but it doesn't always make the final 2!

 

[nickjdavis]

I'm obviously quite a slow brewer based on what has been previously written.

Rarely will my beer leave the primary FV in less than 2 weeks and rarely will I bottle directly from the FV...pretty much everything will go into 2ndary in a cold fridge to allow the beer to clear further. Depending on the beer this 2ndary period may be anything from just a week to four or five weeks.

So minimum brew to bottle time of 21 days and more usually I'd say it is closer to 5 weeks.