Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.
....As a final note on this subject, I should mention that by brewing with healthy yeast in a well-prepared wort, many experienced brewers, myself included, have been able to leave a beer in the primary fermenter for several months without any evidence of autolysis.
Many of us leave all our beer in primary for 3-4 weeks, skip secondary and bottle...for many of us the only time we secondary is if we are dry hopping or adding fruit, or oak...or if we have made a beer like a pumpkin whith a huge amount of trub in primary..but for most of our beers we just leave it and let the yeasties clean up after themselves...
Even palmer mentions it in How to brew....
From How To Brew;
Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.
And this...
....As a final note on this subject, I should mention that by brewing with healthy yeast in a well-prepared wort, many experienced brewers, myself included, have been able to leave a beer in the primary fermenter for several months without any evidence of autolysis.
This get's discussed almost daily, there are plenty of threads on it...you could do a search for "long primary" or "no secondary" for more of the discussions, or just look at all the threads in the beginners section with the words "should I rack" or "how long in primary" and you'll see all our answers...we've kind of hashed and discussed it to death, and cited reasons whay we do...you you will find and abundance of info on the topic...but ultiamtely you'll have to make up your own mind.
So I have this wheat beer fermenting, (2.5 gal batch...3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME, Cascade Hops, Safale S-40 yeast..). First 7 days at 68°, and I'll soon be finished with 7 more days at 63°. The past two days gravity readings were 1.016 and 1.015.
I'm going to leave it in the fermenter another week, would 58° sound like a good idea?
This yeast's fermentation temperature range is 53.6° to 77°, (ideally 59° to 68°).
Thanks
Many of us leave all our beer in primary for 3-4 weeks, skip secondary and bottle...for many of us the only time we secondary is if we are dry hopping or adding fruit, or oak...or if we have made a beer like a pumpkin whith a huge amount of trub in primary..but for most of our beers we just leave it and let the yeasties clean up after themselves...
Even palmer mentions it in How to brew....
From How To Brew;
And this...
This get's discussed almost daily, there are plenty of threads on it...you could do a search for "long primary" or "no secondary" for more of the discussions, or just look at all the threads in the beginners section with the words "should I rack" or "how long in primary" and you'll see all our answers...we've kind of hashed and discussed it to death, and cited reasons whay we do...you you will find and abundance of info on the topic...but ultiamtely you'll have to make up your own mind.
Normally people raise the temperature during ale fermentation (keeping it coolest for the initial hot rush, warming as things slow down towards the end to help the yeast with any clean-up).
The Briess recipe I loosely based this on calls for 7 days in primary at 70° then 7 days in the secondary at 65°,(with #3068 Wheat Beer Yeast). The yeast I used, (safale s-04), has a lower temperature range so I went with 68° and 63°. Maybe I'll bring it up to 73° for a week.
There's 70F ambient and then there's 70F actual ferm temp. All temp recommendations refer to actual ferm temp, i.e., the temperature of the beer. As the yeast eats the sugars, it creates an exothermic reaction which can raise the temp of the beer inside the fermenter 5-10 degrees at peak ferm. I don't have a ferm chamber yet (no excuses, working on it) so I always set my fermenter in a spot that is ambiently 5 degrees lower than recommended ferm temp and then gradually raise it after day 7.
I have my Mr Beer LBK inside a Thermoelectric cooler with the sensor of my willhi temp controller taped to the side of the LBK with a rag taped over that for insulation.
Not as accurate as putting it in the beer, bit I don't think the sensor is water proof. That's good enough for me.
I'm definitely going to raise the temperature to 73º on the willhi temp controler for another week.
...You got me thinking, I just checked the temp of my beer, it's a degree or two of what the controller's set at.
My Fermentation Chamber....
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