Fermenting an IPA..How long?

I just brewed an IPA and I wanted to see what your thoughts were on how long the beer should sit in the carboy. Most of the time I let it ferment for 5 to 7 days and then rack it to a secondary and leave it sit for another 3 weeks and dry hopping it a few days before I keg it. Does it need to sit this long? I don't remember where I herd or read this but that's how I've done it for the last 2 years. Thanks for reading!!!!!

While fermentation should be done in 5-7 days I feel it is necessary to let it sit for 4 weeks. There's some clean up going on that seems to make a difference for me.

Some people here do not use secondary, some do. If you were to, I would leave it in primary for 14 days, check for FG. then rack to secondary for a 5 to 7 day dry hop. Then keg. I typically use 2 oz. per 5 gallons for my IPA dry hops. Great aroma.

An IPA is best to enjoy fresh. If you pitch the right amount of healthy yeast and control the fermentation temperature, you won't need to give the yeast more than a day or two for "clean up" after fermentation is complete. Then dry hop and keg. If you do a 3 day dry hop in the primary, you could have the beer kegged in 2 weeks. If you dry hop in the keg, even sooner. Again though, that means controlling your fermentation to limit the production of off flavors.

mblanks2 said:

Some people here do not use secondary, some do. If you were to, I would leave it in primary for 14 days, check for FG. then rack to secondary for a 5 to 7 day dry hop. Then keg. I typically use 2 oz. per 5 gallons for my IPA dry hops. Great aroma.

Click to expand...

Any tricks or suggestions on how to get the most beer out of your secondary and leave behind the hops, last time I dry hopped I left behind tool much beer using just my auto siphon :-(

I use a small piece of sanitized paint strainer bag and rubberband over the end. Works well. Dont loose anything. Takes a little longer to transfer though.

boydster said:

An IPA is best to enjoy fresh. If you pitch the right amount of healthy yeast and control the fermentation temperature, you won't need to give the yeast more than a day or two for "clean up" after fermentation is complete. Then dry hop and keg. If you do a 3 day dry hop in the primary, you could have the beer kegged in 2 weeks. If you dry hop in the keg, even sooner. Again though, that means controlling your fermentation to limit the production of off flavors.

Click to expand...

+1

If you ferment properly (proper temp control, proper pitch rate, good yeast health, nutrient, pure O2) then there is no need to keep an IPA in the primary for more than two weeks. FG should be hit in about week and your yeast will be able reabsorb their byproducts in a matter of days since they will be plentiful and healthy.

If your fermentations aren't as controlled then a few weeks may be warranted to get the yeast to finish fermenting and clean up, as others have stated.

mblanks2 said:

I use a small piece of sanitized paint strainer bag and rubberband over the end. Works well. Dont loose anything. Takes a little longer to transfer though.

Click to expand...

This works, you could also just put the hops in a sanitized muslin bag to contain them in the FV.

IBEWJamie said:

I just brewed an IPA and I wanted to see what your thoughts were on how long the beer should sit in the carboy. Most of the time I let it ferment for 5 to 7 days and then rack it to a secondary and leave it sit for another 3 weeks and dry hopping it a few days before I keg it. Does it need to sit this long? I don't remember where I herd or read this but that's how I've done it for the last 2 years. Thanks for reading!!!!!

Click to expand...

Last ipa I did was in the primary for about 7 days, then secondary for 10 days while dry hopping the last 4 days, then in the keg carbonating and clarifying with gelatin for about 5 days. The abv was about 6%. If I'm doing a higher gravity ipa I will leave it in secondary for a couple more days.

All my beers I do not see a need for a second vessel. Pitch and ferment in one vessel when fermentation is done its done. I dry hop in the primary when fermentation is 70-80% done leave for a week and keg.
This is the Tasty McDole method and I like it a lot.

I ferment mine for 10-14 days in primary then transfer to a secondary (only if dry hopping) for another 7-10 days and dry hop for the last 4-5 days. I add the hops to a muslin bag as it makes it much easier to clean up when washing my yeast.

The reason that I transfer to a secondary is to give several more days while not sitting on top of spent yeast. Also I sometimes use gelatin in the secondary as it is easier to deal with in the secondary than the keg in my opinion.

brew-boy said:

all my beers i do not see a need for a second vessel. Pitch and ferment in one vessel when fermentation is done its done. I dry hop in the primary when fermentation is 70-80% done leave for a week and keg. This is the tasty mcdole method and i like it a lot.

Click to expand...

+1

nckmsn said:

The reason that I transfer to a secondary is to give several more days while not sitting on top of spent yeast. Also I sometimes use gelatin in the secondary as it is easier to deal with in the secondary than the keg in my opinion.

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to pick on you, but leaving the beer sitting on top of the yeast cake does it absolutely no harm whatsoever. It's a very outdated notion. In fact, if you rack it too early, you will create off-flavors because you interrupted post-fermentation cleanup.

Everyone's different, but I don't use gelatin or cold-crash. I use Whirfloc in the last 15 minutes of the boil and not another thing for clarity and my beers come out very clear.

To answer the OP, I ferment it for 10 days (I used to do longer but found it didn't really make a difference except try my patience), rack to a keg for dry-hopping for 4-5 days then chill, carbonate, and serve.

LovesIPA said:

I'm not trying to pick on you, but leaving the beer sitting on top of the yeast cake does it absolutely no harm whatsoever. It's a very outdated notion. In fact, if you rack it too early, you will create off-flavors because you interrupted post-fermentation cleanup.

Everyone's different, but I don't use gelatin or cold-crash. I use Whirfloc in the last 15 minutes of the boil and not another thing for clarity and my beers come out very clear.

To answer the OP, I ferment it for 10 days (I used to do longer but found it didn't really make a difference except try my patience), rack to a keg for dry-hopping for 4-5 days then chill, carbonate, and serve.

Click to expand...

No problem man! I see where you are coming from. So I think that when I transfer to the carboy the beer is still fermenting. Would this still disrupt the post ferment cleaning?

Also, I have no problem whatsoever not going to the secondary if not necessary and possibly detrimental. I guess I have just been doing the same thing for so long that I never saw a reason for changing it. It is the same reason why I don't batch sparge.

I have a pilsner in the FV right now. Maybe I will leave it in the FV longer before transferring under your advice.

As far as Gelatin goes, It is so easy and works so well. I have never had much luck with Irish Moss and have never tried Whirfloc.

Thanks for the advice

nckmsn said:

No problem man! I see where you are coming from. So I think that when I transfer to the carboy the beer is still fermenting. Would this still disrupt the post ferment cleaning?

Also, I have no problem whatsoever not going to the secondary if not necessary and possibly detrimental. I guess I have just been doing the same thing for so long that I never saw a reason for changing it. It is the same reason why I don't batch sparge.

I have a pilsner in the FV right now. Maybe I will leave it in the FV longer before transferring under your advice.

As far as Gelatin goes, It is so easy and works so well. I have never had much luck with Irish Moss and have never tried Whirfloc.

Thanks for the advice

Click to expand...

Just gonna throw my 2cents in. When it comes to Irish Moss I tend to overadd during the last 15 minutes. Instead of 2tsp I'll use 1TBS. I have an IPA that I just kegged and had no issue with hot break staying suspended in the beer. In fact, after 7 days in primary it was as clear as a bell. Even with dry hopping with pellets (3.5oz worth) I did not have anything leak into the keg.

Bottom line, Irish moss works. It also is extremely cheap to buy. I'd give it another shot and add just a bit more to your boil kettle.

NorthwestBrewman2013 said:

Just gonna throw my 2cents in. When it comes to Irish Moss I tend to overadd during the last 15 minutes. Instead of 2tsp I'll use 1TBS. I have an IPA that I just kegged and had no issue with hot break staying suspended in the beer. In fact, after 7 days in primary it was as clear as a bell. Even with dry hopping with pellets (3.5oz worth) I did not have anything leak into the keg.

Bottom line, Irish moss works. It also is extremely cheap to buy. I'd give it another shot and add just a bit more to your boil kettle.

Click to expand...

will do!

Let us know how it turns out. I'm hoping to brew an IPA in the next month or so and will refer back to this before I do. And I use Irish Moss as well and haven't noticed a big difference, but might try adding more in the future.

Thanks for all your post!!! I love to hear how everyone has a little bit different way of doing things but in the end it all equals BEER. So far I had fermented for 7 days, removed and washed as much of the yeast as I could ( I'm using a homemade experimental conical fermenter) and it has now set for a grand total of 16 days. One thing that I think is a little odd is that I'm still getting a little action on the airlock. I did do a yeast starter and within 10 hours of pitching it was at a strong fermentation. I did use oxygen in the wort and the yeast that I used was harvested from a 6 pack of two hearted ale. This is a two hearted ale clone. I think I plan on dry hopping in maybe 4 days and kegging 5 days after giving me a total time of 25 days from start to finish in the fermenter. Please let me know what you think!!!!!

IBEWJamie said:

Thanks for all your post!!! I love to hear how everyone has a little bit different way of doing things but in the end it all equals BEER. So far I had fermented for 7 days, removed and washed as much of the yeast as I could ( I'm using a homemade experimental conical fermenter) and it has now set for a grand total of 16 days. One thing that I think is a little odd is that I'm still getting a little action on the airlock. I did do a yeast starter and within 10 hours of pitching it was at a strong fermentation. I did use oxygen in the wort and the yeast that I used was harvested from a 6 pack of two hearted ale. This is a two hearted ale clone. I think I plan on dry hopping in maybe 4 days and kegging 5 days after giving me a total time of 25 days from start to finish in the fermenter. Please let me know what you think!!!!!

Click to expand...

You should dry hop in your keg! Get a stainless steel tea ball and place it in the keg during your conditioning. It works awesome and the hop nose given off is insane!

As for the action in the fermenter. If it is still working, keep in in primary for a few more days. It will help to drop gravity more. When your airlock is completely silent, or REALLY long between bubbles, transfer to your secondary or keg.

What FG are you shooting for?

IBEWJamie said:

Thanks for all your post!!! I love to hear how everyone has a little bit different way of doing things but in the end it all equals BEER. So far I had fermented for 7 days, removed and washed as much of the yeast as I could ( I'm using a homemade experimental conical fermenter) and it has now set for a grand total of 16 days. One thing that I think is a little odd is that I'm still getting a little action on the airlock. I did do a yeast starter and within 10 hours of pitching it was at a strong fermentation. I did use oxygen in the wort and the yeast that I used was harvested from a 6 pack of two hearted ale. This is a two hearted ale clone. I think I plan on dry hopping in maybe 4 days and kegging 5 days after giving me a total time of 25 days from start to finish in the fermenter. Please let me know what you think!!!!!

Click to expand...

And, not only do we all do things a bit differently, sometimes I even do things differently myself.

Here's an example. Tomorrow I am kegging an IPA. I made a 10 gallon batch, split into two fermenters about 12 days ago. I used two different yeast strains, and wanted to reuse one of them. So about 5 days ago, I racked that fermenter to secondary. I dryhopped both fermenters- adding hops (no bag) to each. One is in the primary, one is in secondary. Both are clear and are finished, so I added the dryhops to finished beer in both cases.

I know that there will be no differences in the finished beers- except for a slight difference in attenuation and flavor due to different yeast strains. (One is an English strain, one is an American strain).

That's a fun experiment for anybody. Even using the same strain, split a batch and see what you think and then decide for yourself!

NorthwestBrewman2013 said:

You should dry hop in your keg! Get a stainless steel tea ball and place it in the keg during your conditioning. It works awesome and the hop nose given off is insane!

As for the action in the fermenter. If it is still working, keep in in primary for a few more days. It will help to drop gravity more. When your airlock is completely silent, or REALLY long between bubbles, transfer to your secondary or keg.

What FG are you shooting for?

Click to expand...

I do have a stainless steel tea ball that I did use in a keg on a beer that just didn't turn out quite right and after setting for a few days it was a very enjoyable beer. I started with gravity around 1.059 (14.8 brix) and would like to see it around 1.01 or so. I haven't checked it since I took the original gravity. I'll post it when I take it. A for the ball idea, I think that is what I'm going to do. Thanks for reminding me I had that.

I'm never in a rush so I let my brews ferment for 3 weeks or more. Depends on what else I'm doing. I ferment cold at close to 60*F using dry yeast. I dry hop in the primary and usually cold crash everything for at least a week just because I can, (bought a little fridge just for that). I have lots to choose from that's ready to drink so there is no rush in my pipeline. Prost.

schmitt777 said:

Any tricks or suggestions on how to get the most beer out of your secondary and leave behind the hops, last time I dry hopped I left behind tool much beer using just my auto siphon :-(

Click to expand...

I use a inline hop filter made out of copper pipe filled with copper mesh and fresh leaf hops and this lets me get every drop without the trub

MadIslander said:

I use a inline hop filter made out of copper pipe filled with copper mesh and fresh leaf hops and this lets me get every drop without the trub

Click to expand...

Do you use this in conjunction with an autosiphon? Can you share a picture of it?

I'd like to learn more about that. I would love a sanitary solution for separating trub that doesn't clog up.

Just got this from ritebrew.com and it worked great.

NorthwestBrewman2013 said:

You should dry hop in your keg! Get a stainless steel tea ball and place it in the keg during your conditioning. It works awesome and the hop nose given off is insane!

As for the action in the fermenter. If it is still working, keep in in primary for a few more days. It will help to drop gravity more. When your airlock is completely silent, or REALLY long between bubbles, transfer to your secondary or keg.

What FG are you shooting for?

Click to expand...

I was short on time so I just dry hopped in the carboy. my gravity ended up at about 7.25 brix, sg of 1.013 if I did the math right and it says it is at 6.44%.

LovesIPA said:

Do you use this in conjunction with an autosiphon? Can you share a picture of it?

I'd like to learn more about that. I would love a sanitary solution for separating trub that doesn't clog up.

Click to expand...

As soon as I get back home I will snap a photo for you and will try and do a video on my next brew day.
I use a pump but I'm sure if I made it bigger I could use a auto siphon

LovesIPA said:

Do you use this in conjunction with an autosiphon? Can you share a picture of it?

I'd like to learn more about that. I would love a sanitary solution for separating trub that doesn't clog up.

Click to expand...

Hear are the parts I used for my inline filter.
It's 1" copper reduced to 1/2"
I pack the inlet side of the threaded pipe loosely with leaf hops and the outlet side with the copper mesh.
You can use this in many ways but I mostly use it at flameout and at bottling.
I built a 23" one for my buddy's keg line
Hope this helps
Cheers