How long in the fermenter

[marchio-93]

Hello! I wanted to have some opinion on how long to leave the beer in the fermenter, someone says that it can be bottled as soon as the gravity has stabilized, someone says to leave it another week can only give advantages. What are the reasons?
Now I would need, due to dry hopping, to bottle just stabilized the gravity. Will it be a problem?

 

[McKnuckle]

If you are bottling, you want the least sediment possible in your bottles. With a keg, this is not as much of a concern. Therefore, while you can bottle as soon as fermentation is confirmed to be complete, it benefits this clarity objective to allow for some settling in the fermenter first.

Second, all beer needs to condition for optimal flavor. Where this occurs is another choice. You can choose to do some conditioning in the primary fermenter, or you can do most of it in the package (bottle or keg).

 

[mattdee1]

You're probably going to get some varying opinions on this, corresponding to the varying types of processes that different brewers have fallen into based on what kinds of time schedules are compatible with their lives.

This variability should provide a hint. If nothing else, it demonstrates that the timing of packaging (within reason) isn't going to have much of an impact on the end result.

The most basic rule is, unless you're going to try more advanced techniques like spunding, you should be sure the beer has reached FG before packaging. Beyond that, do what works for you.

You've no doubt read articles or books or forum posts that talk about the need for the beer to sit in the fermentor so it can clear up, or, the perennial favorite to repeat verbatim "allow the yeast to clean up after themselves." But those processes can just as easily take place in the bottles or kegs.

If you're bottling and doing hoppy beers, I wish you luck. I was never able to get results in these styles remotely comparable to commercial examples until I started doing kegging with closed transfers.

 

[bleme]

My normal habit is 3 weeks in primary, mainly because I hate to mess with hydrometer readings. There are lots of times when I have to speed things up though. With the right recipe, the right yeast, a lot of ice, and if everything goes right, I can keg in 5 days.

 

[mattdee1]

My typical practice is to keg after 7-10 days for most beers. Bigger beers and/or sluggish yeast strains might push it out to 14-16 days, but that's rare for me.

By the way, I should mention that getting the beer pouring more quickly usually has nothing to do with why I favor a shorter stay in the fermentor. There are two main reasons I work this way: first, I like to not occupy my fermentors and fermenting fridge any longer than necessary, so they're available to make more beer. And secondly, I like to get the beer safe and sound into the nice sealed, CO2 purged keg as quickly as I can. It may sit in a corner of my cool basement for weeks or months before a tap opens up for it, but at least I know it's taken care of.

 

[cubalz]

My routine is 3 weeks in the fermentation chamber and then move to my brew room to allow to fully attenuate for another week. I could go quicker but I have a pipe line going so I am not in too much of a rush and I feel that the beer benefits from the extra time on the cake to really clean up. This has worked for me for MANY years and hundreds of batches.