Primary

[Bigmooks]

I just made a 5 gallon batch of dark ale. I plan on only doing primary fermentation. I am wondering if anyone had a good idea of how long I should allow for this batch to ferment before bottling? The OG is 1.082

 

[runningweird]

are you going to secondary? a big beer like that needs a while for the yeast to clean up their mess. Primary for about a month. secondary isnt a bad idea with such a big beer but its not needed if you are willing to wait - which will lead to a better beer.

 

[Bigmooks]

I wasn't thinking of doing a secondary. I have read that primary fermenting brings out a better tasting and clear beer. It's my third batch so im new to it.

 

[RM-MN]

I know the answer to that question!

You leave it until its done. Yeast doesn't follow human timelines and predicting what any one batch will do is impossible so you have patience and let it have 3 or 4 weeks and then you sample it with your hydrometer. Give it 3 to 10 more days and sample it again and keep doing samples until your gravity no longer changes. It will be beneficial to start the fermentation cool (low 60's) and after the fermentation settles down bring it up to room temperature so the yeast will complete.