Fermentation Schedule - IIPA vs. IPA

[mgr_stl]

Do you folks generally have different fermentation schedules for brewing imperial versus regular IPAs?

For example, I'm wondering if the imperial would benefit from sitting in the fermenter an extra week (for me that would mean three instead of two). I'd still dry hop for the last few days and then cold crash and bottle (no keg...yet).

Thoughts?

 

[jmitchell3]

I keep any beer in primary till it is fermented out + 2 to 3 days to give the yeast time to clean up. This is true for everything from english mild to russian imperial stout.

 

[bja]

Fermentation schedule? What's that?

 

[mgr_stl]

jmitchell,

My current batch is a small one (1.75 gallons), so I won't be taking gravity samples until bottling. I wouldn't have much beer left if I did

So I guess what I'm wondering is does a higher gravity beer typically take longer to ferment than a lower gravity one?

 

[jmitchell3]

What is your yeast / pitching process?

If you pitch enough, healthy, active yeast, they should be done 10 days max for any fermentation. I've done 1.090 OG mead in 7 days to 0.998 FG. I'd say 14 days without checking would be enough...if you are not monitoring your fermentation it's hard to know for sure unless your yeast practices are top notch.

 

[Mer-man]

Yeah, there is a good reason why pitching rates are given by volume and gravity.Time to clean up should not be more than 2 days over reaching terminal gravity.
It will still be green beer at that point, but safe to take off the yeast.

 

[mgr_stl]

I pitched one rehydrated package of Mangrove M44 into 1.8 gallons of wort and fermented around 66 degrees (slowly increased to 69 throughout the first week).

 

[jmitchell3]

I pitched one rehydrated package of Mangrove M44 into 1.8 gallons of wort and fermented around 66 degrees (slowly increased to 69 throughout the first week).

Should turn out pretty well. I'd say give it one additional week and you're good.

 

[RM-MN]

An extra week or even two won't hurt the beer. It may not help it much either other than to drop out more yeast and begin maturing. I've left beer in the primary fermenter for up to 9 weeks and was rewarded with good beer.