How long would you ferment?

I'm going to be brewing an imperial red that should have around a 1.092 OG. The recipe that I got most of my information from on this style said to ferment for 7 days at 68 degrees.

To me, that doesn't seem like nearly enough time for a ~9.5% beer. However, it IS an imperial red which is extremely hoppy (something I want to drink fresh).

The recipe also calls for dry hopping. That means that I am going to dry hop for ~7-10 days in the secondary after fermentation.

My question is: Do you have experience with Imperial Reds? How long have you/would you aged them?

I personally believe that 7-10 days in primary and 7-10 days in secondary would be a good amount of time before bottling. However, I don't have any experience with this style, so what do I know?

My winter warmer (1.088) I did 14 days/28 days/10 days for primary/2ndary/keg. Turned out great... id recommend longer than the 2-3 weeks you have proposed myself.

i usually primary 2-4 weeks. seconadary(if neccessary) 2-4 weeks. bottles 3-8 weeks. then fridge 1 week.
it seems and IS a long wait but worth it.
i do sneak a samples tho.

I would ferment at the lower end of the recommended range for whatever yeast you are using (likely to be lower than 68 if you can achieve it) and plan on a month or so in the primary, then straight to bottling. That's a big beer so be sure to make a starter if you are using liquid. Check the pitching rate calculator at www.mrmalty.com

I'm on the bus of not transferring unless u have too. But I'd do 7 days primary 2-4weeks secondary. You can take readings to make sure that the yeast have done there thing so u dont get bottle burners!!!

Guy's you ferment til the beer's done. And that's regardless of what your instructions say. Contrary to what you might think, yeast can't read recipes, don't know when they are supposed to be done, and have their own timeframe. So you can't choose how long you ferment your beer. And following the 1-2-3 rule is plain silly with the normal 72 hours lagtime you often get (as mentioned it the sticky in the beginner's section)they may only actually be fermenting for 3 or 4 days before someone arbitrarily moves the beer...that leads to stuck fermentations, krausens in secondaries and those dreaded off flavors (because the yeast hasn't had a chance to clean up after their own byproducts of fermentation, if you move them before they get to that point in their life cycle- which is the true secondary phase, the cleanup phase.)

You may choose how long you wish to leave the beer in primary or rack to secondary, buy you don't control how long your beer should ferment for.

Even if you choose to secondary you really shouldn't rack til fermentation is complete. And you determine if fermentation is complete by 2 hydrometer readings over 3 days....

But a beer ferments til it's finished fermenting, not a moment before, and not a moment you can choose.

Guy's you ferment til the beer's done.

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very true!!!

And following the 1-2-3 rule is plain silly with the normal 72 hours lagtime you often get (as mentioned it the sticky in the beginner's section)

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I've always have made starters or smack packs and i wait 12-24hours and then its off like a rocket!

Revvy said:

You may choose how long you wish to leave the beer in primary or rack to secondary[/i]

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This is what I was asking. I understand fermentation. I was asking how long YOU would leave in primary/secondary w/dry hops for this big beer. I may not have chosen the correct words (it was 3:30 am when I posted this), so it may not have been clear to everyone. When I said "ferment" I meant "leave in the primary or secondary fermenter."

Some people leave it in the primary til it's done fermenting and then rack it to the secondary and dry hop it for a given amount of time. What is your given amount of time? Would you leave this big beer in the primary for a month or rack when it has fermenting?

Personally, that big a beer, if I were brewing it, I'd leave in the primary about 4-5 weeks. Then I'd move it to secondary to dry hop for a week, then bottle/keg, and sample in about 3 more weeks....but that's my method - others will vary (as you've seen!)