Any reason to let sit in primary after terminal gravity

CornyKegs 728
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de5m0mike

de5m0mike

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As the title says, is there any reason to let the beer sit in primary for any amount of time after terminal gravity is reached? Is the yeast still doing anything, ie. cleaning up the beer (not really sure what that means) after terminal gravity is reached?
 
Yes. Leaving your beer in primary for 3-4 weeks will do a ton for your final beer. The yeast will create off flavors, and giving them extra time after fermentation is done will allow them to fix those off flavors.
 
Well, that depends. The beer does to continue to condition after most of the suguar is comsumed. Basically, the yeast start eating byproducts produced from breaking down the sugars (which cleans up the beer to a certain extent) The big thing you want to do though is to let the beer clear before you bottle. This may or may not coincide with reaching terminal gravity. 2-3 weeks turnaround time is typical for ales. However, It's not a good idea to let the beer sit in the primary fermenter (on the trub) for more than 3 weeks. If it sits in primary for too much longer than that you are risking off flavors from the yeast starting to eating stuff in the trub.

Hope This Helps
 
BBL_Brewer said:
However, It's not a good idea to let the beer sit in the primary fermenter (on the trub) for more than 3 weeks. If it sits in primary for too much longer than that you are risking off flavors from the yeast starting to eating stuff in the trub.

Hope This Helps
Click to expand...

Maybe a long time ago this was a concern. However, autolysis on the homebrewing scale has been debunked many, many times.

I left a brown ale in the primary, on the yeast, for 2 full months; and it scored a 45 at a BCJP competition....

Yeast these days are healthier and purer; a long primary isn't a real concern...
 
I agree with those above, let it sit for at least 3-4 weeks. In my personal (limited) experience, beers benefit greatly from a couple extra weeks in primary. I bottled two beers recently, one at 2 weeks in primary, one at 4. The first one has quite a bit of sediment & tasted fairly green going into bottles. The second one has no sediment & tasted fantastic going into bottles. I can only attribute this to the extra time in primary cleaning up the flavor & giving the crap time to settle out. There were no yeasty flavors from the one that sat in primary for a month, it was fantastic tasting. I hope all my homebrews are that good.

If you don't have the patience to wait that long, brew some more beer, or go buy some good stuff to drink. Your beer will thank you.
 
If you bottle, I am just wondering if bottling and letting it sit in bottles for the equivalent time is not the same thing as leaving it to condition in the fermentor.
 
It is not as effective if you bottle it, since you are taking it off of the yeast. Leaving it on the yeast for 3-4 weeks minimum will improve just about every style of beer out there.
 
theredben said:
It is not as effective if you bottle it, since you are taking it off of the yeast. Leaving it on the yeast for 3-4 weeks minimum will improve just about every style of beer out there.
Click to expand...

I totally agree! I have made the mistake twice of racking the beer as soon as it hits terminal gravity. Both times I was trying to keg and have ready to share at a specific event. Both times the beers were full of green apple (acetaldehyde) and hardly drinkable. I was incredibly disappointed and have learned my lesson. My rule of thumb is leaving it in primary twice to three times as long as it takes to get to terminal gravity. Minimum of 10 days, but 14-21 is best.
 
commonsenseman said:
I agree with those above, let it sit for at least 3-4 weeks. In my personal (limited) experience, beers benefit greatly from a couple extra weeks in primary. I bottled two beers recently, one at 2 weeks in primary, one at 4. The first one has quite a bit of sediment & tasted fairly green going into bottles. The second one has no sediment & tasted fantastic going into bottles. I can only attribute this to the extra time in primary cleaning up the flavor & giving the crap time to settle out. There were no yeasty flavors from the one that sat in primary for a month, it was fantastic tasting. I hope all my homebrews are that good.

If you don't have the patience to wait that long, brew some more beer, or go buy some good stuff to drink. Your beer will thank you.
Click to expand...

I got a Duvel clone that just past 3 1/2 months in primary. No bugs floating around and the yeast cake still looks fairly healthy. Doesn't smell bad either. This is the longest I've left a brew in primary. I'm not worried.
 
Is the yeast cake on the top or the bottom? I am not sure of the terminology.
When I ferment I see the trub at the bottom and then a white layer of yeast on top of the hop/break trub as the yeast settles. The top yeast cake, kruasen, drops pretty quickly after the ramp up fermentation.


redalert said:
I got a Duvel clone that just past 3 1/2 months in primary. No bugs floating around and the yeast cake still looks fairly healthy. Doesn't smell bad either. This is the longest I've left a brew in primary. I'm not worried.
Click to expand...
 
I've done it both ways.........

* Let the beer sit in the primary for the entire process
* Racked to a secondary after a week to ten days

I like the beer racked to secondary better.....tastes cleaner and clears better. However, I mostly leave in priamry now just to cut out some extra work.

Just sayin.....leavin it in the primary has affected flavor in my experience.
 
Patience is not a problem for me, I have a pretty decent pipeline going and I honestly can't keep up with drinking all the beer I make. I was actually kind of wondering if I was letting it set too long for no good reason. No point in letting it set 6 weeks if it was done at 4.
 
I see what you mean, but I think that's something experience is going to have to answer for you. If you're brewing that much beer, let one go for 6 or 8 weeks sometime and then compare that to beer that only went for 3-4 weeks. That will teach you much more than anything we could tell ya.
 
BBL_Brewer said:
However, It's not a good idea to let the beer sit in the primary fermenter (on the trub) for more than 3 weeks. If it sits in primary for too much longer than that you are risking off flavors from the yeast starting to eating stuff in the trub.
Click to expand...

this is a myth for ales. you have to lave it on the yeast for a LONG amount of time before you get autolysis. if it where a problem we wouldn't be able to age the beer in bottles after bottle priming.
 
My experience has been that it seems to take a week or so less on average to get my beers to the "good drinking" by stretching the primary from 3 weeks out to 4. With a 3 week primary, it was taking 2 weeks to be drinkable, 3 to 4 weeks to be really good after bottling. 4 weeks of primary has it drinkable in a week or less, and good after 1 1/2 weeks or so.

I have heard some say that they can primary for less than even three weeks, and still get a quick turnaround on their bottles. Very likely a difference in their process and mine.
 
You can go to your LHBS and get a yeast that is sealed in an airtight container and kept cooled from the time it was created a week or two ago. It takes months for yeast to start to decay and create off flavors. Otherwise, there's nothing that healthy yeast, in the quantities you will be using, can do to your beer that isn't positive. If you're pitching fresh, active yeast you can leave your beer on it for months without any problems. And the longer your beer sits on the yeast the longer the yeast has to clean up everything in the beer. Also, if you let the beer sit for a month, the yeast will drag down any sediment in the beer and trap it in a tight yeast cake, making your beer amazingly clear.
 
Usually I wait for the yeast to start dropping out and then cold crash. Leaving it on the trub for too long can create some really weird flavors (earwax).
 
The people who are leaving in it the primary for three or four weeks are y'all transferring to a secondary fermenter or going right to the bottle
 
ed_brews_now said:
Is the yeast cake on the top or the bottom? I am not sure of the terminology.
When I ferment I see the trub at the bottom and then a white layer of yeast on top of the hop/break trub as the yeast settles. The top yeast cake, kruasen, drops pretty quickly after the ramp up fermentation.
Click to expand...

On the bottom. If you rack very carefully after the you've cooled your wort, you can nearly eliminate the hops and the heaviest cold break though this was a duvel clone and these are not heavy hopped beers anyway.
duvel%20clone.jpg


P3200700.JPG


On another note I tasted it and it tastes amazing with no funny flavors though definitely not a session beer at 8.25% abv. I can only imagine how it will taste when I get around to carbonating it.
 

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