Longer Fermentation or Bottling?

[jomo1550]

This is my second brew ever. I am brewing today with a kit that suggests 14 days of fermentation and 14 days of rest after bottling. I’m hoping to have it to share on Christmas Day (28 days from now). Ideally I would bottle two weeks from today but I will be out of town that day. Would it be better to ferment 13 days and bottle for 15 or ferment 15 days and bottle for 13?

 

[jomo1550]

This is a Holiday style Ale

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Would it be better to ferment 13 days and bottle for 15 or ferment 15 days and bottle for 13?

1 or 2 days either way will likely not make a huge difference. 14 days is more of a general guideline, both for fermenting and bottle conditioning.

How the fermentation goes will dictate when it is ready to bottle. Pitching an adequate amount of healthy yeast into a lower gravity wort and fermenting at an appropriate temperature will likely produce a beer that would be ready to bottle at day 13. There are plenty of other factors that could slow down fermentation.

 

[rburrelli]

As stated, 14 days of fermentation is a simple recommendation. One of the key things to know when brewing is when your beer is actually finished fermenting. Only way to know this for sure is to take hydrometer or refractometer readings. It would then be safe to bottle.