First brew fermentation question

[gavinskilton]

Hi,

I have just prepared my first home brew using a coopers mexican cerveza kit. Everything went to plan and it is now fermenting.

My question is- should I leave this longer than the recommend 7 days as I have read a lot of threads saying this is better. I am not using an air tight FV, does this make any difference?

Why does leaving it longer make it better? My understand is the yeast uses all the sugar and produces co2 and alcohol. When all the sugar is gone there is nothing more for the yeast to "eat" so it then dies.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[the_trout]

Not all sugars are the same. Its kinda like if you had 10 plates of food in front of you. Your going to eat the stuff you like first and the stuff you dont like will sit until you get hungry enough to eat it. Basiclly by leaving it longer you ensure that the yeast has gotten hungry enough to eat everything.

 

[gavinskilton]

Yeh I know what you mean but if you take readings with a hydrometer and they do not change for a few consecutive days, does this not indicate all the fermentable sugars have been used?

 

[DoubleAught]

Yeh I know what you mean but if you take readings with a hydrometer and they do not change for a few consecutive days, does this not indicate all the fermentable sugars have been used?

Yes, but allowing it to sit longer allows the yeast to clean up by-products improving the taste.

 

[the_trout]

yes, if your hydro is stable your done fermenting and can move it. it will still need time to condition before it is ready to drink but that can happen in your primary or in the bottle/keg, your call.

 

[241]

Once the reading stays the same for a couple days I siphon out and bottle. Usually there is some lag time due to my schedule, but don't rush to bottles/keg if you don't have to.

A couple extra days won't hurt. Things settle out and clean up a bit over time. I had my last batch in the primary (no secondary) for almost 4 weeks and in the last week or so a lot of stuff settled out.

 

[gavinskilton]

Ok thanks!

Will leave it a while longer then.