Newbie Brewbie

[Bigloww]

Hi guys and gals and geetings from the Wind City... Great little forum you have here chalked full of good info.

Got a Brewers Best Home brew kit for X-Mas from the local Brew and Grow. Monday I brewed my 1st batch of American Pale Ale and just brewed my 2nd batch of American light today during the Blackhawks game.

So hopefully i will have a good bottle sesion here in a couple weeks...

1 basic question and please tell me if I should just do a new question thread.. I know this has been asked and answered many times on this forum but I see different answers that are a bit confusing.

1. Best fermentation temp for Ale.. I heard 65-80 (72) to be optimal. others say 60-72. Mine is pretty steady at 70 for the past 5 days but can move it down in the laundry room where it is about 65..

2. The real question is how long to ferment. Store says it should stop bubbling after 4-5 days (it stopped after 5). Wait 48 hours and do a gravity check. Then do secondary fermentation. Many on here (which I tend to go with) say 2-3 weeks ish.

3. Some say that secondary fermentation with lighter Ale's is not really needed... Some say it is for a cleaner looking and tasting beer...

Sorry for basic questions and that they have been addressed many times in many threads on here. But again I see so many different answers it makes my head spin...

 

[masskrug]

Best fermentation temp for Ale.. I heard 65-80 (72) to be optimal. others say 60-72. Mine is pretty steady at 70 for the past 5 days but can move it down in the laundry room where it is about 65.

What yeast are you using? I usually try to keep (ales) between 65-70 F.

The real question is how long to ferment. Store says it should stop bubbling after 4-5 days (it stopped after 5). Wait 48 hours and do a gravity check. Then do secondary fermentation. Many on here (which I tend to go with) say 2-3 weeks ish.

I shoot for 3 weeks primary, 3 weeks in the bottle, minimum.

Some say that secondary fermentation with lighter Ale's is not really needed... Some say it is for a cleaner looking and tasting beer.

I don't care about how clear my beer looks, so I don't secondary. If you were going to enter a contest you might consider it.

 

[Bigloww]

Thanks for the quick and to the point responses.


For both my brews now fermenting, it was Lallemand Danstar Ale Yeast.

Hopefully the 69-70 it has been fermenting at the last 5-6 days isn't too high. From what I read it should be fine... I think I will move the batch i just brewed (American Light Ale) downstairs where it is more like 64-65 (unless you think otherwise).. The American Pale ale took about 24 hours to start bubbling but when it did, the air lock bubbled like mad for about 5 days and just stopped cold when i checked it this morning.


So just single ferment for about 3 weeks and then Bottle?? My kit came with a 6 gallon glass carboy., so I was considering 2nd fermentation, but was worried it would just increase the chance of contamination with little benifit risk/reward.....

 

[masskrug]

My kit came with a 6 gallon glass carboy., so I was considering 2nd fermentation, but was worried it would just increase the chance of contamination with little benifit risk/reward.....

Secondary isn't necessary unless you are adding something to the beer (fruit, oak chips, burbon, etc.) I would even dry hop in the primary fermenter. You could use the secondary to move you beer (after fermentation) if you wanted to keep a schedule going in order to open up your primary fermenter for more beer.

 

[Bigloww]

Cool. I will probably 2nd ferment the American pale ale (just to see) and single ferment the Light Ale. Let them sit in the bottles for about 3 weeks before refrigerating.

So I assume 69-70 is good for ferment temp with the yeast I listed. I think their web said 65-72 for that yeast is the sweet spot, so should be good to go. But just saw a bunch of people recommending lower fermenting temps (60-65) but guess that depends on type of yeast.

Thanks again...

 

[Bigloww]

Well, since the temps plummeted here in Chi-Town for the 1st time here in like 2 years, I have no worries on fermenting my current batch too high anymore. Temp on the bucket went from 70 to 66 overnight upstairs. And will drop a couple more after tonight as well probably. But I opened the vent in the room so will try and target for 65-66 (which is the mid range recommendation from Danstar's website)..