Given my system, how long to ferment?

[DawgBrewer]

Brewers,

I feel like I finally have a good fermentation system. I can control temps in my chest freezer using the ebay temp controller build I found on here. I also pitch a very healthy, large starter (2L for a 5 gal batch as calculated from mrmalty.com). I currently have a vigorous fermentation going on using Wyeast 1056 on my Jamil's Evil Twin kit from NorthernBrewer. I'm keeping the temp at 63 degrees with the temp probe insulated and taped to the side of my bucket. Should I raise the temp in a few days to help "clean" my beer up or leave it at 63 degrees?

Also, once I hit my final gravity should I be concerned with leaving the beer on the cake given my detailed control? Or can I go ahead and bottle? What timeframe would you think appropriate to keep it on the cake? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[Hammy71]

Fermentation for the most point is usually done for me within a week. However, I would still recommend you leave the beer in the primary for at least another two weeks. Green beer is still green beer. Then bottle.

 

[duboman]

You can certainly allow the beer to rise slightly in temp to keep the yeast active to get maximum fermentation but 1056 is pretty fool proof and that temp is perfect IMO.

Even though FG is hit the beer still needs time to clear so I would still give it an additional week for that and then package.

 

[0202]

I had a hard time finding hard information when researching this recently. Obviously your fermentation is done when your target FG stabilizes. However your yeast still need some time to break down diacetyl and acetaldehyde and clean up a bit, which can be hastened by raising the temperature. Everything I read seems to indicate this is a "couple of days" process in the high upper 60's. Esters and yeast off flavors are more prominent during active fermentation so raising the temp once fermentation is over shouldn't be an issue. At that point, if you think it tastes good you should be able to condition it in bottles. Green acetaldehyde flavors will continue to diminish as the beer conditions.

That's my take on it after researching how soon I could crash my beer to drop the yeast.

 

[SpeedYellow]

A 2L starter with 1056 at that temp, and you'll be done fermenting in 5-7 days. I just did the exact thing.

Won't hurt to give the yeast some more time to clean up and for the beer to clarify a bit. No big deal either way.

 

[DawgBrewer]

Thanks for the help. Any thoughts on bringing the temp up for a day or two before cold crashing?

 

[0202]

Thanks for the help. Any thoughts on bringing the temp up for a day or two before cold crashing?

As long as your primary fermentation is done this will accelerate the yeast "cleanup"