Truth about time required before bottling

[Burndog]

We have a Pliney Clone (Extract) in the fermentor and was just checking the recipe to see how long to wait before dry hopping.

I was surprised to see this recipe (from a local homebrew supply) notes only a week before bottling after fermenting. This strikes me as odd since the Northwest Pliney Legacy had us @2-4 weeks before bottling.

Took a gravity reading today and will take another tomorrow to make sure fermentation is complete, then add our final dry hops and consider kegging a week later.

I like the idea of such a short period of time before racking but is this realistic?

Conditioning seems like part of the process to assure good tasting beer but maybe the rules can be bent?

Just like not using a secondary. This only seems viable if you are able to remove the yeast and trub from your fermentor since many people note the yeast cake at the bottom will start to impart an unwanted flavor if left for too long.

Am I justifiably confused? Trial and error will surely answer these questions but it would be nice to hear some educated opinions to help with the learning curve.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Conditioning can take place in the bottle. Most prefer to do it in bulk so there is less variation between bottles.

 

[Mainer]

Lots of kits suggest very short fermentation times. While the majority of your fermentation may well be done after a week, you'll probably still have a substantial amount of yeast in suspension that will fall out given more time.

I let all of my beers go at least three weeks in primary. Usually I go a month, sometimes even six weeks. In my experience, you're unlikely to get any ill effects from the trub in that short an amount of time.

That said, IPAs, especially dry-hopped ones, are best fresh, so you could get away with less than three weeks. But I'd personally never bottle anything in less than two weeks. There's just too high a risk of thinking you're at full attenuation and being wrong, and ending up with bottle bombs.

That's just my experience. YMMV.

 

[Yooper]

If the beer is finished fermenting, and has been at FG for at least 24 hours, then it's fine to bottle it. Still, many will want to wait a little so that the beer is clear, or at least clearing, when bottling so they have less crud in the bottled.

I routinely keg or bottle IPAs at about day 11-14 or so. That allows about 9-10 days for the beer to finish and clear, and then 3-5 days for dryhopping.

I have an 8 day old IPA in the fermenter right now, and will dryhop it later to day and keg it in about 3 days or so.

 

[seabrew8]

We have a Pliney Clone (Extract) in the fermentor and was just checking the recipe to see how long to wait before dry hopping.

I was surprised to see this recipe (from a local homebrew supply) notes only a week before bottling after fermenting. This strikes me as odd since the Northwest Pliney Legacy had us @2-4 weeks before bottling.

Took a gravity reading today and will take another tomorrow to make sure fermentation is complete, then add our final dry hops and consider kegging a week later.

I like the idea of such a short period of time before racking but is this realistic?

Conditioning seems like part of the process to assure good tasting beer but maybe the rules can be bent?

Just like not using a secondary. This only seems viable if you are able to remove the yeast and trub from your fermentor since many people note the yeast cake at the bottom will start to impart an unwanted flavor if left for too long.

Am I justifiably confused? Trial and error will surely answer these questions but it would be nice to hear some educated opinions to help with the learning curve.

I prefer to cold condition my beer over keeping it at ale temps - assuming its final gravity. So when its done i will start to cold crash within a few days. My best beer usually are the ones that are in cold storage for 2+ weeks.

 

[Burndog]

I routinely keg or bottle IPAs at about day 11-14 or so. That allows about 9-10 days for the beer to finish and clear, and then 3-5 days for dryhopping.

Awesome... I'm impatient so this is a nice short schedule.

Do you dry hop on top of the yeast cake or secondary fermenter or have cool equipment that can drop that yeast out when needed?

 

[Burndog]

I prefer to cold condition my beer over keeping it at ale temps - assuming its final gravity. So when its done i will start to cold crash within a few days. My best beer usually are the ones that are in cold storage for 2+ weeks.

I don't have the equipment for a Cold Crash (@34 degrees) at this point so I'll just keg and do a slow cold crash at whatever temp the garage fridge is.

Seems some period of conditioning in any case makes for a better beer.

 

[Yooper]

Awesome... I'm impatient so this is a nice short schedule.

Do you dry hop on top of the yeast cake or secondary fermenter or have cool equipment that can drop that yeast out when needed?

I usually dryhop in the fermenter, but in this case I"m saving the yeast from both fermenters, so I moved them to a carboy. Nothing fancy here, I'm afraid!

I don't cold crash, as I do that in the keg if I'm kegging.

 

[passedpawn]

We have a Pliney Clone (Extract) in the fermentor and was just checking the recipe to see how long to wait before dry hopping.

I was surprised to see this recipe (from a local homebrew supply) notes only a week before bottling after fermenting. This strikes me as odd since the Northwest Pliney Legacy had us @2-4 weeks before bottling.

Took a gravity reading today and will take another tomorrow to make sure fermentation is complete, then add our final dry hops and consider kegging a week later.

I like the idea of such a short period of time before racking but is this realistic?

Conditioning seems like part of the process to assure good tasting beer but maybe the rules can be bent?

Just like not using a secondary. This only seems viable if you are able to remove the yeast and trub from your fermentor since many people note the yeast cake at the bottom will start to impart an unwanted flavor if left for too long.

Am I justifiably confused? Trial and error will surely answer these questions but it would be nice to hear some educated opinions to help with the learning curve.

Most normal beers ferment completely in 10 days. At that time you can bottle.

Dry hopping should be done in the waning days of fermentation, probably day 7 or so. 3-7 days it typical.

Secondary: don't, unless you are storing in fermentor for over 6 months.

Cold crashing: works awesome. With gelatin, it's a really fast way to clear beer. I hear you don't do it, but you will.

Though I keg now, when I used to bottle I don't think I ever bottled before 2 weeks in the fermentor. I understand the desire to speed up the process, but you'll likely end up regretting that.