Kit Recipe Make Sense?

Hi,

I'm working on a start kit from LHBS. While it's been fermenting/in secondary I've been reading forums 24/7.

I bought the kit from Beer & Wine Hobby in Woburn, MA. They've been awesome and don't seem like they'd steer me wrong. I know they get a bad rap on this forum but they've been pretty cool with me thus far.

Long story short - after reading the forums the recipe doesn't make sense to me. Basically, its goes into the primary for four days, then into secondary for 11 more days, then into the bottle for 14 days. The fact that it goes from wort to bottle in 15 days seems waaaayyyy too quick.

Thoughts?

Same with a lot of instructions on the kits, they want you to rush the process so that you'll be drinking more..thus needing to buy another kit. Go with 3-4 weeks in primary and bottle from there making sure you've hit FG of course. You can skip secondary all together unless you are bulk aging or adding things such as fruit/oak chips..etc.

Brewnoob1 said:

Same with a lot of instructions on the kits, they want you to rush the process so that you'll be drinking more..thus needing to buy another kit. Go with 3-4 weeks in primary and bottle from there making sure you've hit FG of course. You can skip secondary all together unless you are bulk aging or adding things such as fruit/oak chips..etc.

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Unfortunately I've already transferred to secondary and this Sunday will be the 11th.

Would I benefit from letting it sit in secondary for longer?

Should I just bottle it, RDWHAHB, and make my next batch the "right" way?

Secondary doesn't hurt, it's just not needed. There are a lot of threads on here that there is benefit with leaving the brew on the yeast longer to allow them time to clean up after themselves. You won't have a lesser brew from transferring, it's just not needed and allows more risk for infection or oxidation unless there is a reason for the transfer. There are a lot of ways to get to the same result. I'd leave it in the secondary until it clears out. Then you can bottle/keg whatever it is you're planning on doing with it.

EDIT: Of course, it matters what beer you are brewing. I'm speaking in general terms.

What kind of beer are you brewing?

Wolfhound180 said:

What kind of beer are you brewing?

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Amber ale.

unionrdr said:

It seems to me that they know you'll be watching the bubbles in the airlock,which on average take about 4 days till they stop. Making you think fermentations done. It isn't. That's just initial fermentation,the more aggressive part. After that,it slows down to a crawl down to a stable FG. Taking it off the yeast too soon can also make it stall & not finish fermenting.
I then give it 3-5 days on average to clean up by products & settle out more. Then rack to a bottling bucket,bulk prime to style,& bottle away.
I hate those instructions they give out. The times are definitely way off for a good beer.

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That's what I figured was the best way to do things.

What should I do now that it's sitting in secondary?

Leave it for two, three weeks. Then bottle.

Come on guys, you're slipping! You should use your hydrometer, and learn to love it.

A good rule of thumb is 1-2 weeks on the yeast after FG minimum, though many people consider a month primary to be the standard. Then you can age it as long as you can stand- no need to go to secondary unless you're bulk aging for a really long time (months)- and bottle when it tastes good.

Secondaries are only necessary if you're using a ton of dry hops or other flavors like fruit or wood, and even then not really necessary- you can do any of those things in primary too, you just don't want to add them while ANY fermentation is happening. If you're using a buttload of dry hops though a primary can get pretty gunky and cloggy and full, though.

Dumb question alert!!

What exactly is bulk aging? I have heard the term a bunch and don't know exactly what it means. :rockin:

Beer doesn't get to its final flavor right after the yeast get done with their feast of the sugars. They take a bit more time to eat some of the other compounds before they quit. Then it takes a little more time for the suspended yeast to settle out. Even after that there must be some more reactions occurring as the flavor still changes. This last step seems to go on faster if you have larger quantities in a container, hence bulk aging instead of bottle aging. I think it depends on whether you are in a hurry to drink it or have storage issues whether you bulk age or not. Part of that equation also includes the alcohol content of the beer as a barleywine will need more time to bulk age than a low alcohol wheat beer.

Bulk aging, from my understanding, allows the flavors to mature in a uniform nature rather than in bottles where flavors can change based on the contents and what's happening inside each bottle. Bottles also provide carbonation, but this is just regarding bulk aging vs bottle aging.

Just think of bulk aging as aging in the fermentor (primary or secondary) where you're aging ALL of your beer, rather than bottle aging, where you age small amounts of beer in bottles. Each bottle could potentially be different- yeast are mysterious things and even small temperature changes/bottle conditions can affect them in myriad ways.

Still, for our purposes, I've never had two bottle conditioned beers turn out significantly different from the same batch, but to me bulk aging is nice because a carboy takes up less space than two and a half cases of beer bottles. It's really up to you, and it probably won't make much difference, to be perfectly honest. Bulk aging is good for set-it and forget-it, so you're not tempted to drink bottles before they're ready.

mdineenwob said:

Unfortunately I've already transferred to secondary and this Sunday will be the 11th.

Would I benefit from letting it sit in secondary for longer?

Should I just bottle it, RDWHAHB, and make my next batch the "right" way?

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One potential issue with racking to secondary/clearing too soon then bottling is the yeast may not have finished the job and if you bottle with beer that is not completely fermented you could have overcarbed beer, or worse!

Letting the beer sit for 3-4 weeks in the primary is great advice! It is what I have always done and never had any issues!!

KevinW said:

One potential issue with racking to secondary/clearing too soon then bottling is the yeast may not have finished the job and if you bottle with beer that is not completely fermented you could have overcarbed beer, or worse!

Letting the beer sit for 3-4 weeks in the primary is great advice! It is what I have always done and never had any issues!!

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So sitting in secondary/clearing for a few more weeks will help fix that problem?

Should I just dump this and start over?

Ahhhhhh! Don't dump it! There is still plenty of yeast floating around to finish the job. just give it at least 2 weeks in the secondary then bottle

Yes, what Grumpy says do not dump it out. What I was saying is that one problem with racking off the primary and/or secondary too soon is your beer will not be completely fermented so when it comes time to bottle you could wind up with too much carbonation. If you let your beers sit for 3-4 weeks you should never have a problem with an unfinished beer causing carbonation problems.

The only true way to determine if a beer has completed fermentation is to take 2 or 3 successive gravity readings. If the gravity remains the same then the beer is finished, if it is getting lower than the beer is still fermenting. Airlock activity is not necessarily a sign of fermentation it is just a sign that gas is exchanging.

It is wise to bottle a beer that has completed fermentation since you generally add enough priming sugar to the beer to create a specific carbonation level. If the beer is unfinished and you add sugar then you cannot control how much CO2 will be produced

Your beer should turn out just fine so by all means do not dump it out!!!!

If you want to send it to me for sampling, now that is a different story

Valuable information from all. Thank you!

Should I just dump this and start over?

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NEVER dump your beer until you have tried everything to make it taste good first. A lot of time there are flavors that are not pleasant when you first sample your beer but often all it needs is a little more time and those flavors go away. Since your beer is still in the secondary you don't know what it will taste like when it has been in the bottle for 3 weeks and you might be surprised how good it will be then.

Here's the rule with home brew: when you think you have waited long enough, wait longer. (Except for hoppy IPAs, drink those very fresh, as I found out the hard way...)