Fermenting too long?

[KenDawg19]

I'm new to the brewing process. I have a pale ale currently fermenting. I read somewhere that letting your beer ferment in the keg for up to 3 weeks is OK. Today is exactly 3 weeks for mine and I plan on bottling today. Did I wait too long?

 

[Southwood]

I'm a relative noob myself, but from what i've read 3 weeks in the primary fermentor is fine if you're doing a single-stage fermentation (no secondary). In fact, letting your beer sit on the yeast for a couple of days after active fermentation has stopped can be beneficial for a variety of reasons.

Don't worry, there are still plenty of little yeasties in suspention for bottle-carbonating

Cheers!

 

[FlyGuy]

Many people here advocate the general 1-2-3 rule for ales: 1 week in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary, 3 weeks bottle conditioning. This is a very safe and relatively fool-proof general method.

Having said that, many others also leave their beers in the primary for 2-3 weeks, then rack to a keg or secondary. You can leave it there for weeks to months (in the case of big beers like an imperial stout). But knowing when to deviate from the 1-2-3 rule comes from experience.

In the end, beer is remarkably forgiving. Most of the cautions you read or hear about regarding maximum time in the fermenters is to avoid the risk of autolysis (yeast spoilage, essentially) or other problems. Exceeding the recommended times won't necessarily cause problems, it just puts you at risk of them. So shoot to meet the suggested guidelines, but don't worry if you go over them once in a while.

 

[Turkeyfoot Jr.]

I don't want to cause any undo concern but I had a cream ale that ended up sitting in the primary for two weeks, meant to leave it for one but got tied up with other commitments, then I racked it to a secondary not thinking about how long it had already sat. A week later I bottled it and two weeks from then I tried one, VERY flat. It's been in the bottle for 5-6 weeks now and the carb. is still really, REALLY low. I get about 1/8" to 1/4" of head when I pour and no retention. The flavor's great just low carb. I'm not certain the long time in the fermenter caused this but that was the only oddity with that batch. I did read on here one time that beer can sit in the fermenter too long and there won't be enough yeast left at bottling for carb. I don't recall the exact reason or logic just recall reading that one time.

 

[zoebisch01]

I don't want to cause any undo concern but I had a cream ale that ended up sitting in the primary for two weeks, meant to leave it for one but got tied up with other commitments, then I racked it to a secondary not thinking about how long it had already sat. A week later I bottled it and two weeks from then I tried one, VERY flat. It's been in the bottle for 5-6 weeks now and the carb. is still really, REALLY low. I get about 1/8" to 1/4" of head when I pour and no retention. The flavor's great just low carb. I'm not certain the long time in the fermenter caused this but that was the only oddity with that batch. I did read on here one time that beer can sit in the fermenter too long and there won't be enough yeast left at bottling for carb. I don't recall the exact reason or logic just recall reading that one time.

Yes, basically your yeast can become spent....normally this isn't a problem even up to a month's time, but you will easily see this when you observe the carbonation on a batch that is bottled two weeks vs. say a lagered beer that has been primaried for 1 to 3 weeks and then secondaried for several more. One good fix for this is to simply add a sprinkling of lager yeast into the vessel the day before or up to a few hours before bottling to give you some insurance.

The biggest concern, as FlyGuy points out is letting beer sit on an old cake for too long.

KenDawg, my APA goes 2 weeks in the primary and then straight to bottle.

 

[KenDawg19]

Thanks for the information. Here's an update: that same day I posted this thread, I bottled the beer. A took a little taste - yeasty but not sweet. And even though there was a decent sediment at the bottom of the container, the beer still seemed a little cloudy. Should I be concerned? Also, the recipe called for brewing 256oz of beer, however I came one 16 oz bottle short of filling all 16 of them. Is this normal?