Patience

[ibrewthereforeiam]

I am new to this forum. I love helping solving problems and I especially love talking brewing in general. I'm a genuine beer brewing nerd.

I would like to point out and I hope some people will read this and benefit from it...

Let your beer ferment. You don't need to taste it every couple days or take a gravity reading. Just let it sit and do it's thing.

Seriously that's about it. Leave it alone. Throughout my years of brewing I have seen people question whether or not their beer is ok...daily. I tell them patients. It will happen. There's not science behind that...just let it go.

I don't mean to be rude to anybody by saying this. My point is, I don't want people to be frantic about whether or not their beer is going to turn out well.

Charlie Papazian "Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew."

 

[godfrey]

I don't bother with readings any more

I take one at the start ish so i have some idea of the strength

wait till the airlock stops

wait another 3 days

then rack and wait some more

my brews taste great when I rack them,

but I know they will only get better with age

 

[ibrewthereforeiam]

Great! You use my exact method!

 

[BIGJIM72]

Are you a doctor & which patients do you tell?

 

[ibrewthereforeiam]

I'm a beer surgeon and my usual results keep people happy

 

[Hawks]

Are you a doctor & which patients do you tell?

:lol:

 

[Megaross]

Dude, it's spelt patience.

I tend to just wait til it's stopped bubbling, leave it a while longer, bottle it and leave it in my warmbox.

 

[MadrikXIV]

I wait till it's stopped bubbling, then wait a week, then rack it into another bucket, wait a week, rack back into bucket, add priming, bottle, wait, wait, wait.....

Luckily my stockpile is increasing so I'm in no hurry, the first few brews, that was a real test of patience, and I don't mean the card game

 

[BrewBilly]

I usually leave my brews for a minimum of 14 days in the FV, I don't have a secondary at the moment. I have left some in for longer - up to 21days as I didn't have the time to bottle at 14days. All my beers have turned out great.
Bottle, then in the hotpress for a week then into the garage on a concrete floor. Works a treat.

 

[calumscott]

Let your beer ferment. You don't need to taste it every couple days or take a gravity reading. Just let it sit and do it's thing.

You'll fit in here just fine. This is the forum mantra (and often the standard reply to many a question...).

 

[Moley]

Dude, it's spelt patience.

Topic title edited.

But I agree with the advice being given, and with wine making you need to take that into a completely different league.

Make it faster than you can drink it, that's the only way to give it the time that it needs.

 

[froidy]

I'm same as BrewBilly, I leave for 7 x days, dry hop for 7 x days then bottle (14days) occasionally longer, comes out great. I also only use a primary. Carb for two weeks warm then three weeks cold :)

 

[BIGJIM72]

No offence meant ibrewthereforeiam, & hopefully none taken.

I agree patience is important, but would suggest cleanliness is as well,possibly more so-you can be patiently waiting for a beer to mature but if you do not have a decent cleaning routine to begin with then all the patience in the world won't stop a potential infection.

 

[dozgladman]

Make it faster than you can drink it, that's the only way to give it the time that it needs

Easier said than done lol

The first few I made were gone before the next batch was ready for bottling

 

[godfrey]

Make it faster than you can drink it, that's the only way to give it the time that it needs

Easier said than done lol

The first few I made were gone before the next batch was ready for bottling

I made 36 gallons of wine in the last 6 weeks

only manage to drink 2 gallons so far :-)

 

[morethanworts]

Yep. I can now store about four 5-gallon brews (3 lots of bottles and a PB) and around 5 of the Brewferm kits. I think I need this much to let things age properly. That's my excuse, anyway. :

 

[dozgladman]

I am trying to follow the above advice and try and get a few brews going one after another , but to be honest I remember home brew from years ago that tasted like " home brew ".

These im brewing now are nothing like they were years ago they are very easy onthe pallette and quits quoffable so I have been drinking more than I was brewing .
On the plus side though I have a steady rotation of bottles :drink:

 

[ibrewthereforeiam]

I usually leave my brews for a minimum of 14 days in the FV, I don't have a secondary at the moment. I have left some in for longer - up to 21days as I didn't have the time to bottle at 14days. All my beers have turned out great.
Bottle, then in the hotpress for a week then into the garage on a concrete floor. Works a treat.

21 days is quite a long time...I'd be careful leaving it in the primary fermenter for too long as your yeast can go into autolysis. This means it will start eating itself and turn the flavor of your beer. But that's great it has worked out so far for you!

 

[calumscott]

Three weeks is no problem whatsoever. Four is fine too. Five is starting to push it I think...

I've had a good few beers that didn't get low enough in my standard 14 day cycle and have been transferred to the airing cupboard for a further week or two to get those last few gravity points. There is no noticeable effect.

IMO your original point is far the more important. Don't rush the yeast. Let it finish. There is a good long time between "properly finished" and "going south".

 

[mattrickl06]

It all depends on what you are brewing surely: :wha:

IPA / light ale - 2-3 weeks fermentation, rack, settle for a week in the cold, bottle
Stouts / Porters - 2 weeks fermentation, rack, bottle
Hefeweizen - 1.5 weeks fermentation, rack, bottle
Lager - 4+ weeks fermentation, rack, finish fermenting, rack, dry hop, lager for 4 weeks, rack, bottle

Hefe has got to be the most efficient brew, ferments super quick and doesnt need any conditioning time, the younger the better in my view :)