Long primary - another reason

[david_42]

Many experienced homebrewers leave their beer in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks. Beginners find this very difficult to do. But here's a real motivator: when a batch is done fermenting there will be a layer of trub. By waiting an extra week or two, this layer will compact leaving you with an additional 2-3 quarts of clear brew.

That's most of a six-pack.

 

[brewmasterpa]

but when you have 53 bottles anyway, whats the wait all about. i remember when i used to drink green beer, and go mmmmmmmmmmm........this is good ****. and now that i brew 6 batches at once and cant make room for more fast enough, letting it go like its supposed to promotes actual good beer. most beginners learn like i did.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

but when you have 53 bottles anyway, whats the wait all about. i remember when i used to drink green beer, and go mmmmmmmmmmm........this is good ****. and now that i brew 6 batches at once and cant make room for more fast enough, letting it go like its supposed to promotes actual good beer. most beginners learn like i did.

I did learn that way, except now I keg. But, same story...used to drink green brew and finish a batch right when it was about 2-3 months old. Now, I've gone to 10g batches and brewing quite a bit more and now I have a different problem. Too much beer (blasphemy, I know!). But I've got beer sitting in primary for almost 2 months just waiting for an empty keg. And to make matters worse, I want to BREW dammit...but I have no empty carboys to fill. But, I really can't complain with 5 different flavors on tap and some random stuff in bottles...it's a beautiful thing!

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Agreed, I like getting over 50 bottles out of a batch vs. 44-46. That extra week or 2 gets you 10-15% more beer for your investment. Not bad if you ask me. I wish my savings account did that...

Another thing I like is having fermenters able to handle 6.5gallons, it gets closer to 70 bottles out of a batch!!

 

[ChshreCat]

Maybe it's just the S-04 I'm using, but when I rack to my secondary after 2 weeks I get all but a tiny big out because my sediment is so compact. We're talking like a quarter inch of clay at the bottom of the fermenter. It couldn't get any MORE compact.

 

[defenestrate]

Many experienced homebrewers leave their beer in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks. Beginners find this very difficult to do. But here's a real motivator: when a batch is done fermenting there will be a layer of trub. By waiting an extra week or two, this layer will compact leaving you with an additional 2-3 quarts of clear brew.

That's most of a six-pack.

not to mention making racking much easier since the trub is much harder to really disturb back in to suspension.

 

[carnevoodoo]

cold crash FTW. It'll compact it even more.