Fermentation Domination

[Boris_the_Russian]

Brewed a high gravity pumpkin ale last night to get ready for the season. Scored some yeast from the local brewery I work for part time and pitched about 12oz of 1056. 13 hours later, I took a few pics to show it off. Super aggressive fermentation with lots of movement under all those bubbles. Bad Ass!! I'm defiantly going to wash and repitch this on another batch.

 

[tangofoxtrot308]

wow good stuff!

 

[Boris_the_Russian]

Just to update. It's now been 40 hours since pitching. Came home from work to see what magic has happened, and I found a complete brown out in the carboy. The gallon or so of head space was not enough to contain the beast! Blew out into the second bucket and is still thumping along nicely. I'm just amazed with this batch.

 

[TheSlash]

That is beautiful! My Apple Crisp ale is doing the exact opposite. 65 hour lag....

 

[headbanger]

Very nice!

 

[Boris_the_Russian]

My question now is... Do I transfer to secondary and get off all that yeast or, do I let ride and transfer to a keg in a few weeks time? I don't plan to add anything to the secondary so I'm tempted to leave it. Just don't know if all that yeast sitting for 4/6 weeks is helpful or harmful. Really was alot.

 

[headbanger]

My question now is... Do I transfer to secondary and get off all that yeast or, do I let ride and transfer to a keg in a few weeks time? I don't plan to add anything to the secondary so I'm tempted to leave it. Just don't know if all that yeast sitting for 4/6 weeks is helpful or harmful. Really was alot.

Let it ride... Generally you'll want to leave all your beers in primary for around four weeks. This will allow the yeast to finish the beer up nicely. If you want to age it or secondary, either rack to secondary vessel or to the keg after the four week primary.

 

[makomachine]

Let it ride but 4 weeks isn't necessary. On average gravity beers primary fermentation is done in 4 days or so - by 2 weeks the yeast have likely done what they were going to do in cleanup. If your bottling, letting it sit longer to clear is fine, but if kegging you can transfer over in 10 to 14 days. Just my experience -YMMV

 

[Piratwolf]

I wonder how many people actually leave beer in primary for four weeks. It's getting easier for me to wait longer because I've been brewing every weekend to build up a pipeline. But before that, I wanted to drink some home brew, dammit! I think my average has been about three weeks from brew to glass. It's not ideal, but the beers have been pretty good & getting better.

 

[Boris_the_Russian]

Last beer was an Oktoberfest I left in primary for 4 weeks, and it turned out great. I have had plenty of discussions regarding transfers to 2nd's. Seems to be the consensus that, if you dry hopping, adding fruit or aging the beer then go secondary. If not, I've heard of folks running primary for up to 2 months with no problems. I think you guys are right and I'll leave it alone. Less fussing, more drinking!

 

[headbanger]

I wonder how many people actually leave beer in primary for four weeks. It's getting easier for me to wait longer because I've been brewing every weekend to build up a pipeline. But before that, I wanted to drink some home brew, dammit! I think my average has been about three weeks from brew to glass. It's not ideal, but the beers have been pretty good & getting better.

I would think that a good number do. I used to follow the old primary/secondary routine religiously and my beers were good too.