primary 2 weeks/bottled 3 weeks = ready beer?

title says it all really. Just want to know what strategies others use for extract beers.

Potentially.

There are a lot of factors. But it can't hurt (much) to chill a bottle and try it out.

Maybe. The only way to be sure is to try a bottle. Chill it for a day or 2 then give ti a go. If it is not carbed properly wait another week and repeat. Do this until the beer is ready.

Unfortunately the beer/yeast make that decision not us.

If you try one and think they are ready then they are ready. However they might not be at their peak. I suggest saving a six pack and drinking one a month so you can see how longer aging affects your beer. My 3rd batch ever tasted good at three weeks but its great at 3 months.

epistrummer said:

title says it all really. Just want to know what strategies others use for extract beers.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of factors at play here and no simple answer. It's certainly true that you can make a solid beer with two weeks in the fermenter and three weeks carbing up in the bottle. But that is by no means a formula that can be applied to everything.

But if you have a lower gravity beer that's fermented with the proper yeast and at the correct temp, then yes, you could have a quality finished product in just five weeks.

That being said, a few degrees here or there, the wrong yeast, not enough yeast into bottles at bottling time, too high of gravity, and any number of other factors to render the 2+3 formula moot.

Only practice will help you determine what is right for your beer.

I'm about to brew my 8th beer. I've left several of my 4th & 5th beers in my fridge for about 7 weeks since I bottled them. They've improved enough to convince me to wait a few weeks after carbonation for all of my ~5% ABV beers. I'm not planning any big beers until the end of summer, but I will probably wait longer for them.

Question is: are you thirsty?

Beer is ready as soon as your palate likes it, patience sometimes makes you like it more, but patience was a whore.

I like to extend my primary for more than 2 weeks, and I've found this is the #1 reason my beers have improved from when I first started. I left my arguably best beer, a bourbon chocolate stout, in primary for 7 weeks, although that was a little higher in the ABV department than some I've made.

So 2 weeks can be enough, but I think more time can only help in most instances. (I brewed a wheat last summer that I think I left on the yeast cake a bit too long, but I also didn't have good tempurature control, so can't pinpoint the cause of the funky flavors exactly.)

As for carbing, if the room is warm enough, 2 weeks has been fine in my experience, and 3 weeks is even better.

I've worked from a 3/3 schedule unless it's an IPA, in which I give it 4/3. Then I put 6 in the fridge and try one after a couple of days.