First IPA - how long to ferment, plus using Mr. Beer as a secondary?

[NickWritesMusic]

I'm on my third beer - the first was an all grain porter using one of the Brooklyn Brew Shop kits, the second was an all extract wheat beer using a recipe from my local shop. This one is my first IPA, and I used this recipe:

http://www.brewsupply.com/HowTo/Recipes/inglewood.html

But pared down for one gallon. So, here come the questions:

1. How long should this thing ferment before bottling?

2. Is a secondary necessary?

3. If so, can I use the Mr. Beer plastic keg I was given a long time ago as my secondary?

Thanks!

 

[kwingert]

14 days of fermenting and then you should be able to bottle if your specific gravity is the same over 3 days. You can let it set in the primary for a month or more if you want, but with it being an IPA, I would bottle as soon as possible so you can drink it before the hops go away.

You really don't need to do a secondary unless you are planning to add fruit or oak or something like that.

 

[NickWritesMusic]

Sweet, thanks! I figure another two weeks-ish in bottles then?

This thing is so active right now, I'm really excited about it.

 

[iambeer]

I am far from an expert but the rule of thumb I have adopted from these boards is the more alcohol your beer has, the more time it needs. I have done 4 or 5 batches and I'm leaning toward 3 to 4 weeks fermentation being a good amount of time for beers with an ABV of 4.5-5.8%, as a general rule.

I'm going to take a leap here and say the reason the directions don't have a dry hopping stage is (if not because it's 'classic') because it's an extract recipe and it's compact and easier. I could very well be wrong. If I was going to do this kit and I had a Mr Beer keg (which I do) then I would ferment in primary for 3 weeks and then use Mr BK as a secondary, buy a little more cascade and dry hop for a short while. After this, I would transfer again to another container (bottling bucket) to sort out the dry hops and to add priming products.

EDIT: Or, in a pinch, just plop the dry hops in the primary and use Mr BK as bottling bucket. I stopped using my Mr BK as a bottling bucket recently.

 

[NickWritesMusic]

So we bottled last night after a long talk with Craig at Culver City Home Brew Supply, and here's what it came down to:

1. Once it's past five or six days, you're pretty safe to bottle in most cases. After that it's not fermenting much anymore, but the beer is clearing and more and more sediment and trub and such is dropping out. So we waited two weeks exactly in the primary.

2. No secondary necessary unless we're dry hopping or adding something, and while we could dry hop the recipe, with only a 1 gallon batch it's probably not worth it, because the hops apparently absorb a good amount of liquid.

3. Mr. Beer works pretty well as a bottling bucket, so we used that.

4. Here's the part I'm proud of: we repitched the yeast to make an amber ale. Bottled the IPA during the chilling for the amber, then went directly in on top of the same yeast. Haven't seen much activity yet, but a couple people told me that this is a great idea. We'll see how it turns out.

Thanks for all the tips!