Is fermentarion done?

[theCougfan97]

I have been doing 2 weeks in the primary 2 in the secondary 2 in the bottle. Can I cut some corners? It seems fermentation (primary) is my best opportunity, is there a point when I can say yes the yeast has done its job, time to move on?

 

[Ogri]

Just go for three weeks primary, forget the secondary, and you've instantaneously slashed a week off there However, Three weeks in bottles at about 70f will generally see a decent level of carbonation and conditioning achieved.

Some beers are more likely to be drinkable after shorter periods of fermentation and conditioning, such as ones with lower gravities or less complex grain bills.

Some of the better brewers on here are able to accurately pitch exactly the right amount of yeast, keep fermentation temps at the optimum per yeast used, aerate sufficiently to ensure happy, healthy yeast propagation and turn a beer around from grain to glass in about three weeks if kegging.

For a beginner brewer it's a good idea to have a couple, or a few, primary fermenters on the go, build up a pipeline and make it easier to wait until your beer has had the time necessary to reach its peak before you drink it.

 

[julioardz]

The yeast is going to take as long as it takes to ferment the beer, but you can control their environment to help them along.

Part of the reason you condition the beer is to let the yeast and other particles settle. Using finings such as Whirlfloc or Irish moss in the boil and gelatin post fermentation helps speed things up. A good rolling boil and quickly cooling your wort does as well. Another part of conditioning is carbonation. Keeping your bottles at warmer temperatures of 70F or above helps speed that up.

Then you also have the fermentation time. Aerate your wort well, pitch the proper amount of yeast, and keep your fermenting beer at the proper temperature for the yeast. This helps fermentation happen in a timely manner and prevent off flavors that would need to be conditioned out. Take gravity readings when you feel fermentation is complete. Stable readings over 2-3 days at your expected FG means its done. Sample those gravity readings to determine if the flavor is fine or if you would rather let it condition longer.

You can skip the secondary all together and leave it in the primary until its time to bottle. Once fermentation is done and you're happy with the flavor, you can cold crash, add gelatin, let it rest a couple days, then bottle.

Even with all of this, you're still looking at around 4-5 weeks, minimum. It's not a quick process.

 

[stvo]

For a beginner brewer it's a good idea to have a couple, or a few, primary fermenters on the go, build up a pipeline and make it easier to wait until your beer has had the time necessary to reach its peak before you drink it.

^^^this for sure... I never open my bucket or look at my carboy for a month. I take a gravity reading if it's where it supposed to be I bottle.....

 

[RM-MN]

i wouldn't cut corners, that leads to poorer tasting beer. You can make the process go faster though. First is to limit off how much off flavors you start with. That is done by pitching the correct amount of yeast into the wort and controlling the temperature to slow the yeast during their initial fast ferment. While people write about having the airlock bubble really fast and needing a blowoff, I never have that because I keep the fermenter cool and that limits how fast the yeast work. Others talk about the fast ferment being done in 12 to 24 hours but mine takes 3 to 4 days. Once the easy sugars are gone, I warm the fermenter up to 72 degrees to encourage the yeast to do their cleanup. That may take 10 days. At this point if the gravity is stable, you can bottle but I've found that for many beers a longer time in the primary leads to less time in the bottle before the beer is mature, enough so that the total time until it is ready to drink is less than if I bottled sooner. 3 weeks in the fermenter seems to work out well.

 

[C-Rider]

First of as said already, forget the secondary unless you are adding something like fruit to your beer. 3 weeks in primary and then take and SG reading. Wait a day or two and try again. If there is no change frementation is done. That's the only way to tell. When there is no change in SG it's done. MIght be less than 3 weeks, might be more, but that's the way you find out.;