How long do people let there beer sit before bottling?

[Yooper]

I keep most of my beers in the fermenter for 10-14 days before packaging.

 

[ahaley]

4 weeks ( or until I remember where I put my fermenter) 2 weeks( very minimum ) for bottling. Most The time I forget about it lol

 

[hector]

So different yeast, different beers and all undrinkable with sourness?
Not an infection but you must have something else going on to create the sourness.

I brewed all of my previous batches with the same yeast strain .

What they had in common except the yeast was sitting on the yeast cake in the Primary for 3-4 Weeks and at the end a Beer full of

twangy and sour After-taste .

Hector

 

[kapbrew13]

I brewed all of my previous batches with the same yeast strain .

What they had in common except the yeast was sitting on the yeast cake in the Primary for 3-4 Weeks and at the end a Beer full of twangy and sour After-taste .

Hector

I would try a different yeast. Twangy and sour. You brewing gluten free?

 

[hector]

I would try a different yeast. Twangy and sour. You brewing gluten free?

Unfortunately , that's the only yeast strain available to me now .

My Recipe is very simple . I use light DME , Crystal malt , bittering Hops and water .

Hector

 

[drunde77]

I usually keep my brew in for four weeks in the primary and only shift to the secondary if I know I can't bottle for a few weeks. I was impatient at first, but now am good to go as I am drinking not waiting for beer. I do have to say that you can buy extra buckets for around $15 including lid and airlock. Once you start brewing multiple batches the 4 weeks sneak up real quick! I usually bottle condition for 3 weeks then 1 week in the fridge. Its about 8 week process for me. Wow! My first brew was half that. Over time you will get more patient.

 

[cval]

May I ask why you felt the need to open the fermenter up multiple times? Stick it in and don't open it for three weeks. Your issue is avoided.

The aroma of perle + cascade was freaking awesome, i wanted to have some. It was a pretty dumb rookie mistake. Not that i'm a noob though the error in my ways definitely seems to tell another story.

It was just my second time using cascade and fell in love with the aroma, i'll know better next time

 

[aerod1]

Normally, I do 3 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary and 4 or 5 weeks in bottles. Then if it is a lager I will will lager a week for every 10 points of OG.

 

[motosapiens]

I keep most of my beers in the fermenter for 10-14 days before packaging.

hate to resurrect this necro-thread, but I'd hate more to start a new one for the same old subject. After searching and reading for half hour or so, I see respected homebrewers all over the map with how long they wait before bottling. I personally have gone 1 week in primary, 4-7 days in secondary with dryhops when appropriate, and then bottle. I understand the whole concept of maintaining fermentation for longer and letting the yeast do their thing, but I'm not sure I understand why they can't be doing that in the bottle, thus freeing up my fermenter. Unlike y'all slackers, I brew 3-4 weekends a month in the winter, so with two fermenters, I either need to bottle or rack to secondary after 12-14 days to make room.

so the question, is something special happening when the yeast is cleaning up after itself that can't/won't happen in the bottle? It's pretty clear to me it needs at least 3 weeks in the bottle to really be ready anyway (although I usually open a 12 oz bottle at 10 days and again at 14-17 days just to follow the progress).

Note that this is all for normal gravity beers in the 4-6% range, and using pretty vigorous yeasts that ferment and drop quickly for me, such as weihenstephan and irish ale. London ESB seems to ferment just as fast, but it takes much longer for the yeast to fall if I don't rack to secondary.

 

[Qhrumphf]

There's a function at the end of fermentation where the beer needs to be on the yeast, but that timeframe is a day or two, not weeks. If you're using quick fermenters and moderate gravities at appropriate initial pitching rates and healthy controlled fermentation, not unreasonable for that to be done in 7 days (or less, I've seen 4 or 5 days with some English session beers). However I could see some take a bit longer, especially with an initial underpitch. I've seen a first gen yeast with no starter add a good week and a half to the same beer a properly sized healthy repitch. I usually get the best, fastest fermentations (grain to glass in 10 days or less) from gens 3 and 4.

Also my experience with almost all yeasts, but particularly 1968 London ESB, they tend to drop very clear very quickly.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Also noting that as I've dialed things in as a brewer, my times for things have gone way, way down from my last post in this thread. Hah.

 

[motosapiens]

Also my experience with almost all yeasts, but particularly 1968 London ESB, they tend to drop very clear very quickly.

i must be doing it wrong. that yeast ferments out very quickly for me, but yeast sits on top pretty much forever (at least a week), until i disturb it by racking to secondary, or cold crash the primary. Once it stops floating, it does seem to settle very quickly.

I've been ramping up the temp gradually for a week tho, and right now it's still at 72. perhaps if I let it fall back down to ambient room tepm of 65 or so it would stop floating.

 

[Qhrumphf]

i must be doing it wrong. that yeast ferments out very quickly for me, but yeast sits on top pretty much forever (at least a week), until i disturb it by racking to secondary, or cold crash the primary. Once it stops floating, it does seem to settle very quickly.

I don't use the London ESB yeast often, but my favorite yeast at home, 1469, is wont to leave a layer of krausen on top long after the beer has conditioned and dropped bright, sometimes for weeks. If the gravity is stable, it tastes conditioned, and the beer is clear underneath, I just rack from underneath it and into the cask it goes.

 

[olephart]

I go two weeks and start checking the gravity.

That being said, I brewed a extract Weizenbock and have a problem.
6 lbs Briess wheat dme
1 lb Briess pilsner dme
2 cups sugar
hops, irish moss zest of two oranges, etc.

I used one packet of Safebrew WB-06 yeast.

Two weeks later I start checking the gravity. I repeatedly get 1.014 over a 4 day period.
FG of 1.014, a little higher than I wanted, oh well...

I bottled with 6.2 oz of table sugar to achieve 3.75 volumes of CO2, as per "brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator"
(German Wheat Beer 3.3 - 4.5 volumes)

Now two days after bottling both of my plastic test bottles are hard i.e. carbonated.

I'm debating
(1.) dumping it all back into the fermenter,
(2.) pasteurizing the whole batch, or
(3.) dumping half the batch back into the fermenter and pasteurizing the other half.

any thoughts anyone

 

[Qhrumphf]

That's a hefty amount of carbonation. I'd expect to see most of it in a couple days. That's not surprising. If you bottled in regular longneck 12 oz bottles I'd be wary, as that's on the high end of what they're capable of handling.

Your fermentation was most likely fine. Don't go dumping back in the fermenter. All you'll do is oxidize your beer.

 

[olephart]

Yeah, Brewer's friend called for 3.3 to 4.5 volume co2. Usually my test bottles don't get hard for at least a week.
I think my Grolsch bottles will be okay, the 15 long necks might be interesting.

Is it normal for a higher carbonation beers to carb up quickly?
Tks

 

[olephart]

I think I will open one of the long necks tonight, in the interest of science, ahem😉

 

[olephart]

Nummy

Definitely taste banana notes, and some clove

Here's hoping those long necks don't pop...

Gonna keep an eye on the Grolsch bottle washers, make sure they don't start pushing out.
(wow, nice buzz, only 7.9% ABV).

 

[mainbutter]

Additional question related to the OP: does the fermentation/fermenter conditioning before bottling time vary for batch size? Will a 1 gallon take the same amount of time as a 30 gallon?

From what I understand, there is no perfect answer, and it is just another part of the recipe you can tweak for desired results - but in general, patience pays off.