When to take IPA out of primary?

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
EamusCatuli

EamusCatuli

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
531
Reaction score
1
Location
Chicago
Hey all, my IPA will be done fermenting and in the primary for one week tomorrow. I have been convinced to start leaving my beer in the primary for up to 4 weeks to let the yeasties clean up the beer, where I used to do everything on the 1-2-3 approach. However, for this IPA I will be dry hopping, so secondary is a must. Should I rack tomorrow or wait longer?
 
Depends on how big it was. I usually try to leave all of my beers in primary for at least a couple weeks (2 or 3). My gauge for racking is when the beer is fully attenuated, the yeast has dropped and the beer has started to clear. No reason to move it before the yeast has done their thing and given up. The bigger the beer, the longer this seems to take.

My last IPA was racked after 14 days. Current IIPA in secondary got there after 22. I made the mistake of racking early once. Never fully attenuated, and ended up being sweet, and didn't age well.
 
s3n8 said:
Depends on how big it was. I usually try to leave all of my beers in primary for at least a couple weeks (2 or 3). My gauge for racking is when the beer is fully attenuated, the yeast has dropped and the beer has started to clear. No reason to move it before the yeast has done their thing and given up. The bigger the beer, the longer this seems to take.

My last IPA was racked after 14 days. Current IIPA in secondary got there after 22. I made the mistake of racking early once. Never fully attenuated, and ended up being sweet, and didn't age well.
Click to expand...

1.042 OG, It was supposed to be 1.064 but the crush sucked something awful and I got a 50% efficiency. Oh well, horray for light IPA's. Ill leave it for another week, cant hurt. Then prob. another 2 weeks or so in the secondary dry-hopping. Then straight to the KEG!
 
EamusCatuli said:
Hey all, my IPA will be done fermenting and in the primary for one week tomorrow. I have been convinced to start leaving my beer in the primary for up to 4 weeks to let the yeasties clean up the beer, where I used to do everything on the 1-2-3 approach. However, for this IPA I will be dry hopping, so secondary is a must. Should I rack tomorrow or wait longer?
Click to expand...

As soon as my IPA was done fermenting (3 days same hydro reading), I racked to secondary and dry hopped with 1.5 ounces. It took 9 days to fully ferment, and after that I racked to secondary and let that sit for 2.5 weeks. That IPA was a beautiful thing...
 
i would probably leave it in longer than a week.. or go with the 3 day hydrometer reading approach. i just did an iipa and am pretty sure i didn't leave it in primary long enough (only 8 days) b/c the end product is a bit sweeter than i'm sure its supposed to be. still tastes good though
 
My extract IPAs improved greatly when I went 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary. But I havn't dry hopped any, so best to ignore me. ;)
 
OhioBrit said:
My extract IPAs improved greatly when I went 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary. But I havn't dry hopped any, so best to ignore me. ;)
Click to expand...

Most of us do anyway, Brit. :D

OP - as long as it's done you can move it anytime you want.
 
Well I know its done fermenting, but was told that leaving beer in the primary for extended amounts of time was the best upgrade to peeps beers they have made (as far as processes). It just seems like it doesnt work with dry-hopped IPA's. Its going to be my first one, and since IPA's are about the most expensive batch of brew out there, I want to do it right.
 
why not dry hop in the primary after the fermentation stops. I just sprinkle the hop pellets in the fermented beer and rack to the keg from the primary three weeks later.
 
King of Cascade said:
why not dry hop in the primary after the fermentation stops. I just sprinkle the hop pellets in the fermented beer and rack to the keg from the primary three weeks later.
Click to expand...

Thought about it, except that typically you need to rack on top of the hops to ensure it gets through all of the beer. Plus, I really want to keep the IPA on top of the yeast cake as long as possible.
 
EamusCatuli said:
Thought about it, except that typically you need to rack on top of the hops to ensure it gets through all of the beer. Plus, I really want to keep the IPA on top of the yeast cake as long as possible.
Click to expand...

I dry hopped a pale ale with hop pellets and after a couple days the pellets had sunk to the bottom.
 
EamusCatuli said:
Thought about it, except that typically you need to rack on top of the hops to ensure it gets through all of the beer. Plus, I really want to keep the IPA on top of the yeast cake as long as possible.
Click to expand...

Yea... so you get the best of both worlds, your beer stays on the cake and you dry hop for as long as you want. If you only want to dry hop for a week you add them 7 days till you keg or bottle.
Don't worry about it touching all the beer the pellet will absorb the beer and leach every thing it can in to the beer. When you transfer to a keg or bottling bucket it will mix up and be throughout the beer.
The compounds you are extracting such as Myrcene, Humulene and so on are water soluble so once in solution they will stay.
 

Similar threads

L
Krausen left on top?
Replies
5
Views
397
Lawlesslevie
L
F
Fermenting a Dunkelweizen - when to bottle?
Replies
7
Views
411
SFC Rudy
SFC Rudy
Gabriel Sayegh
How do folks calculate ABV after a step feed with volume change?
Replies
12
Views
512
MaxStout
MaxStout
gjolivo
Fermentation loss with fruit puree
Replies
11
Views
764
gjolivo
gjolivo
K
Question About Keg Secondary
Replies
9
Views
760
Broken Crow
Broken Crow
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top