I am somewhat of a noob to the forum and to home brewing. Wondering if someone can answer a couple questions. I see all kinds of recipes in magazines and online. The recipes contain everything I think I need but most of them stop short on fermentation methods. They mention yeast and sometimes pitch temp, but seem to omit timing on first fermentation, second fermentation, conditioning, bottling, aging, etc. Are these things personal preferences or is there a standard out there that I'm unaware of. Thanks
Fermentation
- Thread starter jeffro941
- Start date
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A lot of what you will read can be personal preference. In reality, your fermentation is complete once your hydrometer sample has been consistently stable for at least a few days, indicating that fermentation is complete.
There is a large wealth of information and opinions on ferm time. Like its a pretty common and tried method to allow fermentation to continue after hydro samples are stable to allow the yeast to clean up some of their own byproducts.
Instead of trying to provide all of the info that I can think of I will just tell you what my preference is. I like to pitch my yeast at the lab recommended temps and let it ride for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I will raise the temp a little (not usually higher than 70F/21C) and let it sit another week. After that week if the beer still isnt clear I will cold crash for an additional week but I dont usually have to do this if I use whirlfloc or irish moss. After all of this I will then bottle and let the bottles carb up for about 3 weeks or as needed. I rarely secondary a beer unless I am adding fruit to it. Hope this helps.
A great place to start researching information is: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
or just search the forums for your questions.
There is a large wealth of information and opinions on ferm time. Like its a pretty common and tried method to allow fermentation to continue after hydro samples are stable to allow the yeast to clean up some of their own byproducts.
Instead of trying to provide all of the info that I can think of I will just tell you what my preference is. I like to pitch my yeast at the lab recommended temps and let it ride for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I will raise the temp a little (not usually higher than 70F/21C) and let it sit another week. After that week if the beer still isnt clear I will cold crash for an additional week but I dont usually have to do this if I use whirlfloc or irish moss. After all of this I will then bottle and let the bottles carb up for about 3 weeks or as needed. I rarely secondary a beer unless I am adding fruit to it. Hope this helps.
A great place to start researching information is: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
or just search the forums for your questions.
Yes, unless it is a lager. That's a whole different animal. But I rarely do lagers as I prefer ales.
oldstyle69
Well-Known Member
it will usually depend on the yeast that you use. some people like to go with a secondary fermentation, but its not really needed in most situations. the style of beer you are making depends on your grain or extract bill. how you ferment it is up to you. also, porters and stouts are ales. sorry, im snarky when drinking.
looking up the yeast you are using, online, will usually give you some idea of what the temp range is. i usually go directly to the company website to get the into, and then double check on homebrew sites to see what people are saying about the yeast.
