SemiHemi08

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I have just gotten into the hobby and started brewing last Saturday. I started out with an all wheat beer and put into my Mini Brew 6.5 gallon conical fermenter around 9pm on Saturday and pitched the yeast. I have had good activity since and have removed some of the dead yeast cells from the bottom yesterday.

My main question was if I keep removing yeast this way (every other day or so), will I make the yeast fall out of suspension too quickly before racking straight to bottles? I was wanting to rack to bottles possibly this weekend or early next week giving it a full 8-10 days to ferment in the conical? How early is too early to bottle and drink them?

Thanks!

devilishprune

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I don't know anything about conicals, but I do know that just removing the yeast/trub on the bottom of the fermenter is NOT going to cause more yeast to fall out of suspension. They are going to do that on their own time regardless of how much trub you pull off.

As for bottling? I would give it 3 weeks minimum before bottling.

Airborneguy

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Way to early to drink. Dumping the yeast like that is actually detrimental because when the yeast is finished fermenting, it will clean up some by-products that it produced. Furthermore, you are not dumping "dead" yeast.

After a week, you can bottle a wheat beer especially because they are meant to be drunk young, but you will still need at least a week for it to carbonate (some people say even more).

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22415 Brewery

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I also own a minibrew conical fermentor and here are some things I noticed when it comes to trub dumps and ferment times specifically with the minibrew:

1. Watch your dump carefully, there'll be distinct layers that you'll see as you dump. 1st dump will most likely get you a bunch of crud and sediment. 2nd dump a day or two later will probably get sediment and a bit of dirty looking yeast. 3rd and 4th dump will vary based on your yeast strain and how far along your ferment is.

2. Ale yeast for the most part (except super high flocculating strains) is suspended throughout fermentation and even beyond. Even dumping trub until it runs clear doesn't mean that you've kicked out all the yeast (most of the time), there'll still be some floating around doing their job.

3. I've had relatively fast fermentations in my minibrew conical compared to better bottle carboys (which I still use). Dumping the trub on a regular basis kicks up some of the yeast and actually has helped jump-start a few stalled fermentations...kinda like swirling a carboy.

Timing is all about if your beer is ready or if it is not. Use your hydrometer and take daily readings until it's stabilized. Then you'll know if it's done doing it's thing. Sometimes it'll take longer and sometimes it will stabilize quicker. We can predict the timing pretty accurately, however most of us still use hydrometers.

So is 1 week too soon to bottle? It can be for some and not for others. I had an awesome Hef from a fellow HB'er that he had primaried for 4 days and was kegged and force carbed 2 days later. Talk about a young beer! Now on the other hand, a week old 10% Imperial Stout would probably not leave such a great impression. Tasting and measuring is all part of the fun!

Good luck man! And welcome to the greatest hobby of all time (besides imbibing).

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