Yorkshie terrier

[thomasray_uk]

Hi all, it's been a while since I posted anything but I could use some advice.
I bought a York Brewery Yorkshire terrier kit at the weekend. It says on the instructions to leave to ferment for 4 to 6 days. This seems a little short to me, i normally leave mine for about ten days. What would you do?

 

[WelshPaul]

Damn - when I read the thread title, I thought that someone was trying to top the "cat in the beer" story!

 

[Moley]

It says on the instructions to leave to ferment for 4 to 6 days. This seems a little short to me, i normally leave mine for about ten days. What would you do?

I'd leave it for at least 10 days, kit instructions are usually optimistic. It probably makes more attractive reading to those of an impatient disposition, but you'll get a better result if you give it that bit longer.

 

[TheMumbler]

Damn - when I read the thread title, I thought that someone was trying to top the "cat in the beer" story!

:rofl:

thomasray_uk: I would go for your usual 10 days or so as Moley suggests. AFAIK giving the yeast a bit more time should improve the beer and will carry little to no addtional risk.

 

[Aleman]

I bought a York Brewery Yorkshire terrier kit at the weekend. It says on the instructions to leave to ferment for 4 to 6 days. This seems a little short to me, i normally leave mine for about ten days. What would you do?

If you pitch enough healthy yeast then fermentation will almost certainly be complete in 4-6 days even if your temperature is 18C, also because you have pitched enough yeast, the yeast does not need to clean up after itself as it wasn't messy in the begining.

Unfortunately a 6g sachet of dried yeast is neither enough . . .nor healthy so go with your up to 10 days

 

[TheMumbler]

Is there any real down side to leaving it in the FV for another 3 or 4 days?

 

[robbierat]

is it not better to go with the hydrometer reading.

 

[Aleman]

is it not better to go with the hydrometer reading.

A hydrometer reading will tell you that it has finished fermenting, but you can't take that as being the time to rack off into a cask, as if you don't pitch enough healthy yeast the yeast will have some work to do absorbing chemicals they produced early in fermentation , like diacetyl. if you don't allow this then you run the risk of off or funky flavours.

Is there any real down side to leaving it in the FV for another 3 or 4 days?

If you have had a full and complete fermentation then it is best practice to get it of the yeast and any trub, again to minimise the risk/potential of off flavours developing. This is especially true if you ferment at ambient temperatures when in the summer the rate of these off flavours developing is much faster . . .Of course if you have a temperature controlled ferment, then you can always turn the temperature down and allow it to sit for much longer in primary.

Commercial breweries want to get the FV freed up for another batch as quickly as possible and so will pitch much higher quantities of yeast (It's cheaper to pitch more yeast than it is to buy another SS fermenter )

 

[shearclass]

Well this thread brings me a whole load of questions...

enough healthy yeast

Aleman - how do you know how much this is? I would guess it depends on OG and size of brew?

In standard kits, i normally brew to about 21 ltrs, strength normally about 4 - 4.5%, is one 11.5g pack of US-05, or whatever, enough? or is more needed?

If not, this 'yeast clearing up after itself' stuff, why will it not clear up after itself when racked to another FV, since there are, i believe, still loads of yeast in the beer at the point? Why is the trub key to this yeast clear up stuff?

I thought i just pitched my 11.5g pack of yeast, waited for fermentation to complete, rack to new fv, add finings, wait, rack to bottling bucket, add sugar, bottle. (though often i only rack once, not twice) However, it appears i should be thinking about leaving it in the fv longer for yeast to clear up. How long does this take, approx, after initial fermentation has finished? 48 hours??




Cheers

Neale