How long should I condition my scotch ale?

[bce22]

Good day everyone,

I recently made a scotch ale using extract and specialty grains. It had on OG of 1.075. It has been in my primary for 7 days and it had a fast, vigorous fermentation. For the past 3 days I've seen almost no bubbling through the airlock. Last night I pulled a sample and it read 1.027. I'm thinking about racking this beer to a secondary so I can brew up my next beer (an Irish red) tonight.

My question really is about how long should I leave the scotch ale in the secondary? I was thinking maybe 3 weeks or so, but I don't really know how to judge if it should be longer. Also, am I correct in assuming that by leaving it longer in the secondary it reduces the length of time it needs to condition in the bottle (not including carbonation time of course)?

I'm thinking that my red ale will not be racked to a secondary because it will be in use by the scotch ale, so i will go directly from primary to bottling for that batch.

Thanks,

Brad

 

[Walker]

am I correct in assuming that by leaving it longer in the secondary it reduces the length of time it needs to condition in the bottle (not including carbonation time of course)?

You can think of bottles as tiny secondary fermenters. There's no real fermentation going on in a secondary... it's more like a clearing tank and a conditioning vessel.

You shouldn't have any problems bottling it and waiting longer before drinking vs leaving it in a carboy for a while longer and then bottling.

 

[MultumInParvo]

You can think of bottles as tiny secondary fermenters. There's no real fermentation going on in a secondary... it's more like a clearing tank and a conditioning vessel.

You shouldn't have any problems bottling it and waiting longer before drinking vs leaving it in a carboy for a while longer and then bottling.

Yup. I agree. With a good Scotch Ale I would let it mellow out for quite awhile though certainly 3+ months.

 

[Gremlyn]

Keep in mind that transferring to your secondary may rouse the yeasties up to finish off that beer. 1.027 is a little on the high end for finishing, though if you didn't make a good sized starter (or make a starter at all) then you may just have ended early. You stil may get some more fermentation after the transfer though... I'd say give it 2 weeks in the secondary and check the OG again.

 

[bce22]

Okay, so really, no matter if I rack to a secondary or go straight to bottles I should let it sit for 3 months or so before drinking the majority of the batch?

 

[MultumInParvo]

Okay, so really, no matter if I rack to a secondary or go straight to bottles I should let it sit for 3 months or so before drinking the majority of the batch?

Certainly give it a taste. But yeah, with a big scotch style ale they're probably best with some time to just condition. Be it in bottle or secondary.

 

[bce22]

Keep in mind that transferring to your secondary may rouse the yeasties up to finish off that beer. 1.027 is a little on the high end for finishing, though if you didn't make a good sized starter (or make a starter at all) then you may just have ended early. You stil may get some more fermentation after the transfer though... I'd say give it 2 weeks in the secondary and check the OG again.

I pitched a dry yeast pack (Safale S-04) that I prepped first. From this point on I will be using liquid yeast and creating starters and using a stir plate. I'm not going to mess around with underpitching yeast from here out.