Fermentation time: (how long is too long?)

Hello folks,

A few weeks back I brewed up what I hope will be a very tasty blackberry wheat. I used an American Wheat extract kit, then added 6lbs of wild, frozen blackberries (handpicked) grown here in the Adirondacks. Berries were added in grain bags during the cooling of the wort and a healthy amount of juice was extracted from them into the wort. Today was supposed to be bottling day however upon collecting all the necessary supplies I have discovered that I have no bottle caps....(darn!) anywho.... Now its looking like my beer will have to sit in the primary for at least another 10-12 days (don't have the option of secondary yet). It has been in there 14 days so far. My question is, will my beer be okay for another 10-12 days in the primary, before I am able to bottle? Thank you all and thanks for reading this long winded post!

Many of us leave our beers in primary for a minimum of 1 month ON PURPOSE....We believe it makes for clearer, better beer.

We need to clarify something for you...Your beer doesn't ferment for x number of weeks. Beer only ferments for as long as the yeast takes, which is usually about a week. And you determine that with 2 consecutive hydro readings.

The rest of the time a beer is left alone is for conditioning whether in extended primary OR a secondary.

You don't CHOOSE how long a beer ferments for.....you let the yeast do it's job...you want a beer to finish fermenting.

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 that thread, and experiment for yourself, and make up your own mind.

There's thousands of threads where folks have ventured their opinions, and argued incessantly, but it ultimately comes down to what works for you......me, it's a minimum one month before I bottle.

Excellent, thank you so much for the quick and informative reply. I apologize for my ignorance I am still quite new to brewing.

I'm with Revvy, I like to keep them in for at least a month.

subsailor said:

i'm with revvy, i like to keep them in for at least a month.

Click to expand...

+1^^

Revvy said:

The rest of the time a beer is left alone is for conditioning whether in extended primary OR a secondary.

Click to expand...

I've read some great articles about conditioning which also confirms this.
Now, one thing bothers me: if we bottle beer, conditioning will continue in bottles since they are at higher temperature, so 2-3 weeks in primary and 3 in bottles is similar to extended primary fermentation.

But what is the case with kegging?
I mean if we keg after 2 or 3 weeks and cool it down to eg. 40F then we are decreasing condition/maturation time and that will probably leave the effect on taste..