How long do you ferment your session brews?

I've been brewing some tasty sessions as of late w/ wlp001 & US05, and I e been getting real quick finishes. My question to all you badass brewers out there, how long do YOU ferment your sessions? And is there really any advantage to conditioning for 3 weeks in the fermenter?

crushingblackdoom said:

I've been brewing some tasty sessions as of late w/ wlp001 & US05, and I e been getting real quick finishes. My question to all you badass brewers out there, how long do YOU ferment your sessions? And is there really any advantage to conditioning for 3 weeks in the fermenter?

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I usually package by day 10, but with s05 I noticed it takes longer to clear than other strains. With s04, I can package by day 7 with a totally clear beer. I still usually wait 10 days or so, but it's totally clear by day 5.

I don't see any advantage to letting a well made beer sit in a fermenter for three weeks, but I don't think it will hurt it either.

Me finds that with British strains I have to either wait a bit longer or fine before packaging. Not necessarily for visual clarity but I find that it tempers the esters a bit.

Typically 2 weeks, give or take a day.

I have never bottled in less than two weeks, but I'm currently (finally) reading Joy of Homebrewing and it seems to constantly say "don't wait so long." So I'm going to try to cut that back on my next couple low to middle gravity beers.

Yooper said:

I usually package by day 10, but with s05 I noticed it takes longer to clear than other strains. With s04, I can package by day 7 with a totally clear beer. I still usually wait 10 days or so, but it's totally clear by day 5.

I don't see any advantage to letting a well made beer sit in a fermenter for three weeks, but I don't think it will hurt it either.

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Ditto!

It depends on the beer, but with lower gravity beers I see little point in waiting more that two weeks before packaging. If I have a stable FG and the beer's falling clear, it's ready to go. With low ABV beers, I've gone grain to glass in ~2 weeks when kegging the beer.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

It depends on the beer, but with lower gravity beers I see little point in waiting more that two weeks before packaging. If I have a stable FG and the beer's falling clear, it's ready to go. With low ABV beers, I've gone grain to glass in ~2 weeks when kegging the beer.

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Thanx y'all !
Hey NordEast, I regret to share that I did NOT go to see Agollach last night here in Portland
new album tour, but just too dog tired. Check out their new album if you can. It's epic.

In the past I've left it alone for 3 weeks, mainly due to laziness. I'm going to try to bottle my next few batches after 2 weeks (assuming the gravity cooperates) to see if I can tell a difference.

I have an Ordinary Bitter, expected to be around 3.2-3.5%... I plan on bottling after 10-14 days. It most certainly doesn't need more than that :rockin:

I've almost always kept to a 3 week schedule but that's partly because of my brew/bottle (now kegging) schedule and partly because I like it to settle out a bit. Rarely do I do it at day 10 and maybe 20% of the time, at 2 weeks. I've been very lucky of late and am almost starting to feel like I know what I'm doing. I've got beer snob friends who love my beer and have started themselves and ask me things as if I'm a real brewer. But, after 20 years of no brewing the last 16 months back have been 98% successful following the mostly 3 week fermentation.
To each their own.....what works for you is what works for you. After a short while, you will 'feel the force' and know what's right or at least, how to find out what's right.

i would probably do 3 weeks on my blueberry wheat i have now, though since i'm the the process of building my keezer i'll probably wait a month for the other 2 to be done as well as the keezer

When the beer tells me it's done. Brewing to a time schedule or waiting a set number of days or weeks is completely idiotic IMO. Now for the session ales I brew, which is a wide variety, those I like fresher than others. So I am usually drinking them out of the keg by 21-30 days on average, dependent on a large number of factors. Sometimes shorter sometimes longer. Whenever the beer is ready, I drink it.

crushingblackdoom said:

Thanx y'all !
Hey NordEast, I regret to share that I did NOT go to see Agollach last night here in Portland
new album tour, but just too dog tired. Check out their new album if you can. It's epic.

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^This EP? Those guys are f'n amazing!! :rockin: They never stop coming out with some of the most incredible metal. Shame you missed 'em, but I'm sure they'll be playing there many times before they play here. Epic band for sure.

crushingblackdoom said:

I've been brewing some tasty sessions as of late w/ wlp001 & US05, and I e been getting real quick finishes. My question to all you badass brewers out there, how long do YOU ferment your sessions? And is there really any advantage to conditioning for 3 weeks in the fermenter?

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I'm with Yooper on this one. I bottle my session beers at about 10-12 days...