Basement temp is 66 F. How long should Mr Beer stay in the brewing keg?

Our basement is the only place we can keep our Mr Beer keg. We brewed last weekend and left the keg in a dark part of the basement where the temperature is 65-67 F. Should we wait longer than 14 days to bottle? This will be our first batch of Mr. Beer.

Thanks for the help.

it all depends on the yeast's characteristics, but that temperature sounds fine. 14 days should complete the fermentation for most beers. Since you'll be using the plastic bottles, you won't have to worry about bottle bombs - you can burp them if need be.

Good luck on your brew!

consider yourself lucky that you've got a basement at that temperature! some of us have to use buckets of water/ice to cool fermentation...

just remember that 2 weeks is a pretty 'young' beer. should be interesting to see it improve after that.

+1 to Thrawn's comments (nice name, BTW). Be sure to let the bottles condition for at least four weeks if you bottle at two weeks' time. This is a hobby that rewards patience.

msa8967,
As to your question of when to bottle, while temperature is one factor, there are other things that can affect the fermentation time. For that reason, there isn't a simple answer to how long your fermentation will take.

No matter what your brewing system, your decision on when to bottle should be answered with the aid of your hydrometer. You should know what final gravity to expect from your recipe, and when you think you have reached the end of fermentation, take a hydrometer reading. If it reads within a few points of the expected final gravity, you're almost there. Wait a few days and take another hydrometer reading. If it is the same as the first reading, you should be good to go. If it has dropped some, it's best to wait a few more days, and test again.

After reaching final gravity, there are all sorts of good reasons to wait a while longer before bottling. During the next couple of weeks, the yeast will absorb diacetyl and other nasties as it settles out, making your beer taste better.

As jacketsfans said "this is a hobby that rewards patience".

Thanks everyone for the advice. Today (5/24) is day 7 of the fermentation and I think I will give the beer atleast 10 more days before bottling. I waxs not aware of the existence of this forum prior to buying a Mr Beer kit and after reading through so many posts I will be upgrading equipment soon. I would like to have some beer ready for my wedding Juky 25th of this summer. Hope there is enough time left for conditioning.

mick

I would recommend (if you have enough patience) to leave it 4 weeks in the primary. The yeast will continue to clean up after their selves after fermentation is complete and they will reward you with some good tasting beer.

In case you haven't seen it, there is a whole section here on Mr. Beer. It is a very informative read (quite lengthy) but worth reading.

Good Luck,

3 weeks minimum in the primary and you will be better rewarded. It's very difficult with the first brew to wait that long. Hell, it's difficult to wait that long anyway! But honestly, patience pays dividends.

From what I have read via this site on the Mr Beer threads it seems like wiating 3 weeks to bottle is the way to go. I am anxious to try this product but with the potential yield quality of a Mr Beer product being low after just 1 week it seems easier to wait. I do have a desire to already move up to a more established beer making set of equipment regardless of how Mr Beer turns out.

thanks for everyone's replies...

mick

msa8967 said:

From what I have read via this site on the Mr Beer threads it seems like wiating 3 weeks to bottle is the way to go. I am anxious to try this product but with the potential yield quality of a Mr Beer product being low after just 1 week it seems easier to wait. I do have a desire to already move up to a more established beer making set of equipment regardless of how Mr Beer turns out.

thanks for everyone's replies...

mick

Click to expand...

Warning,
You are exhibiting signs of turning this hobby into an obsession! If you do then you will truly fit in here!!.

Tried a small sample of the Mr Beer that has been fermenting for 15 days. It came out with a strong yeast taste almost like liquid bread. Would continuing to wait another week or two be good or bad for the beer at this point? Several people have answered on posts that 3 weeks should be the minimum before bottling but I didn't know if the yeast taste in the beer after 2 weeks would affect this amount of time? I am in no hurry to bottle it but if this beer should be thrown out at this point I would like to try one more batch. I did purchase a 2 bucket (6.5 gallon) system that I am eager to try provided I didn't screw up this Mr. Beer batch. This batch was made from 1 can of hopped LME and 1 can of unhopped LME. I did not use the booster mentioned by Mr Beer.

Any thoughts out there? Thanks for your time.

Mick

The sample you pulled was likely full of yeast. Letting it settle for an additional week or two will reduce the "bread" flavor. It sounds like your beer is progressing completely normally.

Thanks for the advice and vote of confidence Yuri. I did go out and buy a Brewer's Best kit today and made my first full boil batch this evening. Took about 3 hours from start to clean up. I hope 3-4 weeks will be enough time for this to finish fermenting. I would like to bottle it but the end of June and hopefully be able to serve some of it on July 24th. Anyone think this time line is reasonable?

Thanks, Mick