Fermentation duration?
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cooper
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Active fermentation should only take a few days, which it's already been, so I would rack to a 5 gal carboy (so there is very little dead space between the brew and the airlock) and bottle or keg when you got back. Should be fine.
Many of us leave our beers in primary for a month then bottle. I find my beer is clearer and cleaner tasting and has consistantly scored higher in contest as compared to when I used a secondary.
I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread.
To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .
I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread.
To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .
or like others, you could just leave it in primary and make sure it's done. racking to secondary after a few days is not the best advice out there.
I leave jan 2, meaning the beer will only have been in carboy for 5 days. I suppose I'll let it continue to sit in carboy until I return. I thought I read somewhere that leaving the brew on top of yeast cake too long was detrimental? I know everyone has their "system/technique". Thanks for input.
Like I said, the discussion above has all that info in there. The person who advocated that idea, John Palmer, has changed his tune on the whole off flavor idea. You'll find that more and more recipes these days do not advocate moving to a secondary at all, but mention primary for a month, which is starting to reflect the shift in brewing culture that has occurred in the last 4 years, MOSTLY because of many of us on here, skipping secondary, opting for longer primaries, and writing about it. Recipes in BYO have begun stating that in their magazine. I remember the "scandal" it caused i the letters to the editor's section a month later, it was just like how it was here when we began discussing it, except a lot more civil than it was here. But after the Byo/Basic brewing experiment, they started reflecting it in their recipes.
But go read that thread, or the hundreds of other ones...all the info and answers to your questions about it have been covered over the last 4 years on here.
My personal record is 6 months, but that was because I moved to another state and my brewing buddy died in a motorcycle accident. Took me a while to get back down to retrieve the beer and brewing gear. It was fine.
Mine was 6 months as well, the beer turned out fine.
