General question @ when to rack

Hello. I'm in the midst of my second batch, an IPA. I'm 9 days into It since the boil. I decided after reading this forum to forego my secondary fermenter. I used it with my first batch and the beer came out good but wanted to bother it as little as possible this time. I took a reading today, the gravity is 1.018, it needs to get down to 1.010. Seems about right to me. I figure another week in the primary and I should be good to go. However, here is my question. Is it beneficial to leave it in the primary for a period of time after its hit the finished gravity before racking. My guess is that it will hit it next weekend but if i left it in there for a total of 3 weeks (the week after next) would it help, hurt, or really add no benefit?

Many of us (myself included) leave my beers in the primary for 3 weeks or more. You'll find that 3 weeks for an IPA is fine in the primary, no risk for yeast autolysis yet.

For bigger, more complex beers, like belgians and the like can stay in the primary longer.

I typically go three weeks before kegging on average gravity beers. I also no longer use a secondary.

I go 28 days on my IPA's before kegging. If I keg sooner it has a green taste for a couple weeks, so I might as well leave it in the primary.

kingofprussia said:

I took a reading today, the gravity is 1.018, it needs to get down to 1.010.

Click to expand...

FWIW, if you used extract it might be done. I never had an extract batch go below 1.016.

As far as your question goes, for pale ales and IPAs, I usually ferment for 7 days, toss in some dry hops and then keg whenver I have time. Sometimes its 10 days, but no more than 14.