Fermentation timing...

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If the suggested fermentation time is 4-7 days - by adding sugar and bumping up a bit of the yeast how long would youth in fermenting to take...
1kg of sugar standard added 1/2 kg
5 g yeast to 11.5g yeast...

Cheers

Campbell
 
Trying to get a beer to be done/ready to bottle on a human imposed time frame is not wise. Chances are it won't work out that way either. As for how long a batch will take, that depends entirely on the recipe, how it's made, conditions where it's fermenting, and more. While I have had a batch finish fermenting in less than a week, I won't move it to keg (or bottle if I was still bottling) at that point. I give it some more time to allow other great things to happen. Such as the yeast do a bit of house keeping in the form of cleaning up any off flavors it might have produced (there are yeast strains that require this rest period). Another is to flocculate out of the beer so that you transfer more beer into keg/bottles. If it takes another week, or several, for this to happen, for a batch I've brewed, then it's going to get that time.

My 'normal' range of time in primary has been 2-12 weeks. I have a big barley wine planned for the end of this month that could go even longer.

BTW, just adding more sugar can be harmful to the recipe in more than a few ways. Depending on the percentage of the recipe is going to be plain sugar, it could turn the brew cidery. It can (or will) thin out the body of the brew and throw hop utilization off. IMO, better to enter the recipe into software to see what your conceived changes will do to it. IF you want to make a stronger brew, you're better off adding some DME to the recipe, instead of sugar.
 
Hi guys thanks for feedback...

Yes it was not a lot more sugar however when taking some small hydrometer readings - Day one took a reading of 1.058 / Now at day eight 1.010

The taste is full, colour is strong and certainly fermenting..(taste tested when doing hydro tests in tube.

Would that suggest I am very close.. However you would recommend leaving it for another week at least? Before bottling..

Cheers

Cam
 
No way to know if you're close, done, or somewhere else.

Best bet is to take another sample/reading in a few more days (3+) and compare with the latest reading. Even once you think it's at FG, give it another week or two to mature.

For the future, run your recipe through software to get a better idea of what you're going to get. I find that BeerSmith 2.x does a really good job of estimating the FG of the batch. Provided you give it good information of course. Bottling too soon can (and often does) result in bottle bombs. Plus you'll be bottling green beer that might not mature fully in bottle (it will mature better if you leave it in primary).

I do hope you plan on giving it at least three weeks at 70F in bottles before chilling a sample bottle for 5-7 (or more) days and then pouring to glass. Otherwise, you'll probably be posting about a lack of carbonation or other related issue. Be aware that higher ABV brews can take longer to bottle carbonate. So, depending on how this finishes, it could take longer (sometimes much longer) to bottle carbonate.
 
OP, The use of sugar throws this some, but generall with all malt, a 75% change in OG to FG is typical and tells you you are close. (you've had abouta 82% change in OG to FG) This works because malt isn't 100% fermentable, sugar, however is, so I've no idea if your FG close or not - in part because I don't know if you are making 5 gallons, or 1. an extra .5 KG in 5 gallons(19l) will add about 8 points to your OG but in 1 gallon, it would add 40! - ok I guess you aren't doing 1 gallon, but my point remains, I can't tell what % of your fermentable (grain bill) the sugar is.

Also typically in a typical beer (around 1.040 OG) by day 7 all but the last point of SG change has occured. With that said letting a beer sit a few days (7 to 14) in a fermentor is a good idea to get it cleaned up and have better flavor.

Now if you have another beer you wnat to to brew, and desprately need this beer in bottles, then you could probably move it along, but it would not result in the best flavor. Better flavor/results can be had by letting the beer sit a bit longer.
 
Thanks guys some very value info.. The fg seems to be now stable.. (2 days)

I am planing on leaving this in primary for another week or two... Before bottling..
I am not planing on chilling until at least December - Jan so should be good...

God brewing is addictive... A truly rewarding science...
 

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