2 days

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.
M

Machiavelli

Active Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Its been 2.5 days and my airlock has completely stopped. The exact same (time period) thing on the few prior batches that Ive made. A couple of questions:

-Ive usually just take a gravity measure to be sure and then gone on and bottled. After perusing this site, I see that most people keep up to two weeks in primary. Should I let it sit a week or so longer? Should I open and give it a stir to induce a bit more fermentation? Is there still fermenation going on even thought the airlock has stopped? I guess not if my final gravity reading is good...even after 2.5 days. I dont see how people are getting these longer fermentation periods. Maybe its the type of beer Ive been brewing--usually your basic ale kits? The few I've made have been good though so far.

One more qustion, a bit off topic. Does only the dead yeast settle to the bottom? What Im getting at is: If I let it sit another week to let everything settle nicly for clarity and then rack it for bottling, leaving ALL the sediment behind, is there still always enough yeast left to ensure a good carbonation? I guess, Im asking how long before yeast starts dying/going dormant and all settles to bottom?

Thanks for any advice!
 
the thought around here is that if you leave your beer sit on that yeast a bit longer it will clean up after its self. By it doing that it will provide you a cleaner product.

And, to your other question as the yeast finishes its job it will fall out and come to rest on the bottom of the vessel, but there is still plenty of yeast in suspension that will hang out for you to bottle your beer.

The yeast will not start to harm you beer for several weeks or even months (depending on style of beer)

If you have the patience, let it sit for another week or so than bottle.

I personally feel that you will be happier with the final product.

-Jason
 
I don't bottle anything less than 3 weeks from brew day any more - usually they spend 10-12 days in primary then another 12-14 in secondary before bottling, and they're usually ready to drink in another 3 weeks. There's always been enough yeast for carbonation, the flavor has improved a lot and I don't have a lot of yeast sediment in the bottles.

The secondary is not entirely necessary - I like to do it because it frees up the primary for another batch and I also dry hop almost half my beers. You could just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks and get a similar result, but if you do secondary, check the gravity with a hydrometer before moving to be sure it's done first.
 
Machiavelli said:
Its been 2.5 days and my airlock has completely stopped. The exact same (time period) thing on the few prior batches that Ive made. A couple of questions:

-Ive usually just take a gravity measure to be sure and then gone on and bottled. After perusing this site, I see that most people keep up to two weeks in primary. Should I let it sit a week or so longer? Should I open and give it a stir to induce a bit more fermentation? Is there still fermenation going on even thought the airlock has stopped? I guess not if my final gravity reading is good...even after 2.5 days. I dont see how people are getting these longer fermentation periods. Maybe its the type of beer Ive been brewing--usually your basic ale kits? The few I've made have been good though so far.

One more qustion, a bit off topic. Does only the dead yeast settle to the bottom? What Im getting at is: If I let it sit another week to let everything settle nicly for clarity and then rack it for bottling, leaving ALL the sediment behind, is there still always enough yeast left to ensure a good carbonation? I guess, Im asking how long before yeast starts dying/going dormant and all settles to bottom?

Thanks for any advice!
Click to expand...

It is not uncommon for beer to finish fermenting in 2 to 3 days. However the beer is not ready to drink or even bottle at that time. If you leave it in the fermenter for about 3 weeks the yeast will eat a little more sugar, consume some byproducts produced during the rapid ferment and settle out on the bottom of the fermenter. This will result in a clearer beer that is cleaner and better tasting.

No need to stir the beer at this point though you can swirl the ferment some to rouse some of the yeast back into suspension to help finish the process. This can be important when using highly floccutant English varieties like Wyeast ESB, WLP 002 and S-04 to get them to finish at the expected final gravity.

As the yeast go dormant they start to floccutate out of the beer to the bottom of the fermenter. Most are not dead but merely dormant. However millions of yeast cells remain suspended in the beer. These yeast are plenty to carbonate the beer even after months in the fermenter.

Craig
 

Similar threads

F
Transferred to secondary too soon. Dump it?
Replies
10
Views
868
WesBrew
WesBrew
Pwhitby
Issue with Brewers best tripel-Slow ferment, high (still) sg.
Replies
8
Views
663
mac_1103
mac_1103
S
Any Urkel Fans?
Replies
23
Views
754
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
B
1st graf brew and need advice
Replies
2
Views
524
Brewsterguy
B
Denis2121
Racking to secondary with krausen
Replies
8
Views
398
hottpeper13
H
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top