How long in primary?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jcmccoy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2010
Messages
270
Reaction score
3
Location
Homewood
How long do you guys leave your beer's in your primary fermenter after fermentation has stopped (ie. air lock stops bubbling).

I have a Gumballhead clone that I can going to dry hop tomorrow, it's been in primary for a week now. Fermentation stopped a day ago. I think I am going to dry hop for 5 days or so?

I also have my 1st all grain beer an Oatmeal stout that stopped fermenting today. Its been in the primary for 4 days.. I dont know how long to wait to bottle it let it sit for a few more days?

thanks for any help!
 
i leave all my normal beers in primary for 3 weeks and dont use a secondary if i am dry hopping i just put them in at the beginning of week three.

air lock activity doesn't mean anything about fermentation, a hydrometer is the only way to be sure you are not going to get bottle bombs a steady reading for at least 4 consecutive days is the best way.

the times you have listed are way to short for a proper conditioning. after fermentation is complete it takes some time for the yeast to clean up after themselves and get rid of off flavors that are natural with fermentation I would suggest reading up a bit more on brewing so you dont have discouraging issues as you go.

search this site for Revvy's blogs he has some really good stuff for new brewers look up Charlie Papazian and his book the Complete joy of homebrewing and John Palmers How To Brew these will teach you alot about making amazing beer..

Recap dont touch the beers for at least 2.5 to 3 weeks take Hydrometer readings and have patience.
 
Another good thing to do is taste the beer! Taste the wort! Weekly interval tasting is good spacing for detecting how the condtioning process is going.

When I first started I was tempted to throw beer away that was 2 -3 weeks old it tasted so bad but by week 6 it was good and by week 8 it was great.

Beer is a lot like cooking and a lot of good chefs or cooks also brew. If you've ever watched a good cook or great chef they do a lot of tasting throught out the process.
 
Yea I have read joy of home brewing and the online book how to brew good reads. I guess I need to buy a beer thief cuz I can get samples of my beer to get the F.G.

Also how long do most people suggest dry hopping for?
 
I usually keg a beer after 11-14 days, especially the familiar beers I make often. I use 1968 and with proper monitoring of temp, it can be ready to bottle/keg pretty quickly. I like to get the beer in the keg/bottle for aging so I can taste its flavor evolution. It's definitely better after a couple weeks, but I like to experience the change.

Typical dry hopping averages 10-14 days, and usually not less than 7 days.
 
As a general rule I leave my stuff in the primary for 3-4 weeks. I just had a pale ale w/all Centennial hops that's at 8 weeks (4 weeks primary + 4 weeks kegged) and tastes absolutely fantastic. About 1 or 2 weeks ago it still had some off flavors. I'd recommend building up a pipeline so you're forced to age them properly. Get used to tasting samples as they condition. This will tell you alot about how far along they are.
 
dry hopping time depends on a few factors such as the amount of hops you are using and how you are dry hopping(pellets, whole flowers, hops floating on top of beer, hops submerged, ect.) it is safe to dry hop for 10-12 days with generally 1.5-2 ozs of hops. depending on what style beer you are brewing i would use multiple hop strains instead of one to get a fuller flavor, but this is only from my experience. if you dry hop too long some say you may get a grassy flavor although i have never experienced this. also from my experience the higher the abv the more you should dry hop. someone correct me if im wrong about anything i have said, but this has always given me great results on ipas, pale ales, stouts, amber, and red ales. also people will tell you to dry hop with low alpha but high alphas are also great for dry hopping, my number one go to dry hop is centennial.
 
Back
Top