Final gravity

[Mart1986]

When your brew hits final gravity would there be any need to leave it in primary or would you bottle it straight away

 

[EJay]

Conventional wisdom is to leave it at least a few days for the yeast to clean up after themselves, so to speak. I'm not sure its necessary, but not sure it isn't. On normal gravity beers I usually always go 3 weeks in primary then bottle any time thereafter. Sometimes I go much longer depending on my personal schedule.

 

[flars]

Sometimes final Final Gravity depends on the yeast and fermentation temperature. Some yeasts can take a week or longer to drop the last couple points the yeast is capable of. I usually primary a medium OG beer until it clears. Typically three to four weeks.

 

[histo320]

I always use 4 weeks as a standard and has always worked for me. My first brew I bottled after 2 weeks so I thought that was normal. My 2nd brew I did after two weeks as well but created bottle bombs.

Leaving it an extra week or two doesn't hurt. Yeast leave behind their own byproducts and leaving it for a few weeks allows them to clean up after themselves.

 

[Yesfan]

I do a 3 week standard for standard gravity ales as well. Depending on the beer, you could let the ferm temp rise a little in that third week to speed up things on the yeasts' cleaning end.

 

[Gavin C]

When your brew hits final gravity would there be any need to leave it in primary or would you bottle it straight away

Bottle it.

When it's done it's done. It's not going to get any more done once FG is reached and the beer is dropping/has dropped clear (style and yeast dependent of course)

Conditioning/aging/lagering is a very different animal and can be done in the bottle if desired. (pros and cons apply).

All my beers, ales and lagers are packaged as soon as practical after FG is reached. (2 weeks +/- a day or 2)

There is however a reasonable argument to be made for bulk aging in an (correctly and fully filled to the neck) carboy for certain beer types. Definitely not a wrong approach.

Weighing up the two sides of the argument, if I did not keg I would not change my schedule if bottling, aside from needing to square away some more time to do it.

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

When your brew hits final gravity would there be any need to leave it in primary or would you bottle it straight away

When you've hit you're desired final gravity you're right in saying that there is no need to let it ferment any further, however it does depend how 'young' your beer is as there may still be undesired flavour compounds present such as acetaldehyde or diacetyl and so the beer would benefit from extra time in the fermenter which is why a minimum of 2 weeks is usually advocated.

An additional argument would be to let more of the yeast drop out before bottling. The trub will also becomes more compact over time which has its benefits.

 

[Yooper]

When you've hit you're desired final gravity you're right in saying that there is no need to let it ferment any further, however it does depend how 'young' your beer is as there may still be undesired flavour compounds present such as acetaldehyde or diacetyl and so the beer would benefit from extra time in the fermenter which is why a minimum of 2 weeks is usually advocated.

An additional argument would be to let more of the yeast drop out before bottling. The trub will also becomes more compact over time which has its benefits.

Yes, but that yeast clean-up phase lasts +/- 24 hours after FG is reached, so the only advantage to leaving the beer in the fermenter after that is for clarity.

Some yeast strains, particularly English strains, will fall out as soon as they are done and the beer will clear right away. Other less flocculant strains will cloud the beer much longer. I typically will wait for the beer to clear, or be clearing anyway, before packaging.

I typically package ales on about day 14-17, depending on what I'm making and the dryhopping schedule.