Fermentation COMPLETE in 4 DAYS?!?!?!

[WissahickonBrew]

Before pitching two dry packs of Danstar Nottingham I read the label for whatever information I never took notice of before. There is very little information on the tiny packet beyond premixing instructions with warm water, etc. On the Danstar website however there is a great deal of information. What jumped out at me was the following under Nottingham:

Brewing Properties:

• Quick start to fermentation, which can be completed in 4 days above 17°C.

What am I misinterpreting? Can/should I expect the fermentation to be complete in 4 days as opposed to 15 - 21 days?????

 

[balrog]

There is always cleanup time, but the "fermentation" which is technically just the phase after lag/reproduction, where the sugar is converted to alcohol, can be quite short. The clean up phase and drop out come after that.

 

[ColoHox]

With the proper pitching rate and temperature control, the bulk of fermentation can be completed in 4 days for most yeasts.

Many people prefer to leave their beer on the yeast for an extended time to clean up fermentation byproducts.

There is a difference between a complete fermentation and a ready-to-drink beer. I keep my beers on in primary for 3-4 weeks, but ferm is done within the first week, easy.

 

[skw]

Nottingham can be really quick at eating up lots of sugar. I've seen it go from pitching through krausen back to a clear surface in 3 days. However, over the following week gravity was still dropping by a few points and the taste changed a lot. Don't let it fool you into bottling too early!

 

[Zibe]

Nottingham is awesome it's pretty much all I use and I have a dry stout that's only about 4% that i keg in 10 days and drink in 14 but I think active fermentation is done in three days especially when it's a repitch


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[thatjonguy]

Yes, what everyone else is saying. You wouldn't enjoy it after 4 days, but it will be done fermenting. Conditioning is what takes more time for the yeast to clean up most of the by-products produced during fermentation.

 

[Yooper]

I've had beers with nottingham ferment overnight. I think almost ALL of my ales finish with fermentation by day 5, so it would be unusual for a beer to take more than 4-5 days to ferment out.

I'm usually drinking my beers by day 17, so I can't imagine them taking 14-21 days to ferment out.

Fermentation generally ends by day 3 in a properly made beer, so there is no reason to expect them to take 3 weeks!