physast said:
I will take a reading tomorrow and Wednesday and see what the reading is and go from there. Here is the situation. I have to go out of town for the next two weeks leaving Thursday morning for a job interview I found out about yesterday.
so here are my choices...
1. If the gravity does not change by Thursday morning re pitch adding the yeast (still not to sure on the procedures here, but I am guessing the same as adding before ie.. add yeast to warm water let it start to ferment and the add it to the wart)
2. Do nothing and see what has happened in two weeks when I return and bottle then.
3. Bottle it Wednesday night and have a beer ready when I get home in two weeks.
What do you think? Thanks for all the help guys! This is a great forum.
You're rushing your beer. I know it's hard to be patient with your first batch, but it'll get easier as you brew more.
Rule of thumb is 1 week in primary and 2 in secondary.
Once you bottle I would say it's a minimum of three weeks in the bottle before you should think about drinking your beer. I've had some batches that were not high gravity or particularly 'complex' that were drinkable early, but weren't really
good until several months in bottles.
So you gotta ask yourself, do you want to drink fast beer, or do you want to drink really good beer?
Since it's hard to wait, go ahead and drink one after two weeks. Drink it slowly, enjoy it, savor it. Then wait, and drink another one a week later. See if you notice a difference. Keep spacing them out until you no longer can tell a difference, then have at them! And of course make sure you have another batch (or two!) going during this process...
I helped myself get through the waiting process by buying commercial brews I've never had before to help plan my next batches.