Loose lid and time in primary

Hey guys,

I've been brewing since March 2016 and have been told since the start the I could do my primary fermentation in my bucket with a loose lid. I know that this is OK and even though I also sometimes do my whole fermentation in a carboy with airlock...I do like the bucket.

I was also told to leave my beer in the bucket for around 4-5 days before racking to secondary. Now I know that many people prefer keeping it in primary and I know that people will find 5 days to be not enough...BUT is it OK? Will my beer be negatively affected if I racked after a bit more then 5 days? What is the downsides to racking after 5 1/2 days?
Thanks!

Beer will be fine. You can leave it in there until you're ready to bottle/ keg if you want. If you leave it in there until final gravity is reached you can seal the lid all the way but be sure fg is reached by using hydrometer before sealing it.

it will be fine....it is beer!

What's the point of racking to a secondary that early? It's more work, and I can only think of downsides. Yes, it may be fine. But will it be the best it could be? I think you're putting yourself at a disadvantage if you take your beer out if primary before fermentation completes and before the yeast have a chance to clean up their byproducts, namely acetaldehyde. Just let the beer sit until its done, then package.

Downside to racking after 5 days is that if fermentation hasn't stopped, there is going to be a lot of stuff in suspension. Wait for it to drop out.

They say the yeast continue to 'clean up' the beer after fermentation has ended. It takes a long time(months) for the yeast to break down and negatively affect the beer. How long before autolysis starts?

Also I've stopped using airlocks recently. I just put a sanitized piece of foil over the hole in my bucket lid and it's been doing fine. I use a ferm chamber btw, so this is only during fermentation. If I was going to lager, I would probably use an airlock.

For what it's worth, in the Brewing TV episode where they did an open fermentation, they racked off after high krausen had passed. I think the reason they gave was that they didn't want anything that had landed on the krausen to make it into the beer.

If you're using a bucket with a lid that should be fine.

Open fermentation works fine, but if you don't close it up at some point, you are going to allow oxygen, bacteria and unwanted yeast in your beer. Most people just use an airlock from the start so they don't have to closely monitor the beer's progress.