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Hedo-Rick

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OG started at 1.054 and is 1.012 right now. Using US-05, averaging 68 F, it's been in primary 10 days, still getting activity out of the airlock and still have a healthy krausen.

Getting ready to go out of town tomorrow and need to decide if I'm going to rack. It has to be getting close to finishing up (figuring around 1.010), If I leave it in primary for another 8 days at 68 F, will it suffer any off flavors?

Thanks!
 
What are you making? Any particular reason for racking it to secondary?

If it's going to be dryhopped or you're adding fruit, leave it. It'll be fine and you can transfer it when you get back.

If it's just beer, and you're not adding anything in secondary, leave it. It will only get better with the additional time. Then when you get home, leave it another week. Then bottle or keg it.
 
It's an american wheat...50% white wheat, 50% barley and a simple hop schedule.

I'm just a firm believer in giving my beer time to mellow, clean up and develop in secondary.

No dry hop, no fruit. But it is my first time using Amarillo hops, and I'm already really digging the the flavor and aroma.

I just want it to completely ferment out, but don't want to take the chance of it suffering any off flavors by keeping it on the lees too long.
 
18 days for that beer should be fine. i keep all of my beers in primary for 14 at mid-60's and do as you said (let it mellow). only in extreme cases of fluctuating temps and high generation yeast strain do you start to run into "weird flavors". you should be fine sir.
 
I'm just a firm believer in giving my beer time to mellow, clean up and develop in secondary.

Fair enough. I personally don't use a secondary anymore except for dry hopping, sour beers, and fruit beers. But everyone's got their technique, and that's cool.

I just want it to completely ferment out, but don't want to take the chance of it suffering any off flavors by keeping it on the lees too long.

Now that is one thing that you truly don't need to worry about. You can let a beer sit in primary, on its yeast cake for quite some time without getting any off flavors. In fact, some of the more knowledgable members around here will tell you that it's actually more harmful to pull the beer out of primary too soon. The yeast won't have a chance to fully clean up after themselves and take care of byproducts that can cause those off flavors. I don't pretend to know everything about brewing, but I have heard a few podcasts with pro brewers saying the same thing.

Long story short. You're safe. Go out of town and know that your beer will be happy at home.
 
It's an american wheat...50% white wheat, 50% barley and a simple hop schedule.

I'm just a firm believer in giving my beer time to mellow, clean up and develop in secondary.

No dry hop, no fruit. But it is my first time using Amarillo hops, and I'm already really digging the the flavor and aroma.

I just want it to completely ferment out, but don't want to take the chance of it suffering any off flavors by keeping it on the lees too long.

The beer will be perfectly fine in primary until you get home and it wii mellow and clean up just as nicely as what you are used to. Besides, it's an American Wheat, it's supposed to be a little cloudy:)
 
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