How long do you ferment?

[Stu's Brews]

I generally use Nottingham ale yeast which is quite fast, high attenuating and high floculation. As a result my timetable is: 3 - 4 days in fermenter, and then transfer into a second air locked container for 5 - 10 days (I use a polypin sat on its base with an air lock in the hole where the tap would normally go. That way any air can be removed before sealing it). Bottled from the polypin so about 8 - 14 days from pitching yeast.

Out of interest, why do the transfer to the polypin?

 

[Brewshed]

Out of interest, why do the transfer to the polypin?

It is a process known as 'dropping' which is not done so much now with the advent of cold crashing (which I am not set up to do). The effect is to remove the beer from the dead yeast etc that has been formed during fermentation and to encourage the yeast to sediment before bottling. It is very noticeable that within a few hours of transfer most of the yeast in suspension has settled out (not sure why it works that way). Dropping is supposed to improve the quality of the beer significantly, although I have always done it and so do not know what it is like if just left in the fermenter.

 

[The Baron]

It used to be common practice to take the beer of the yeast into a "secondary" FV but is not commonly practiced nowadays. I do not do it but have in the past for the oxygenation and contamination risk myself but every brewer has a method that works for them and it is not right or wrong