My first brew

[mmonteiro]

I'm brewing an american ale, with a recommended fermentation time of 5-7 days in the bucket, then 2 weeks in the bottles. i brewed it on sunday the 12th, and the air lock stopped bubbling on tuesday the 14th. i'm probably being paranoid but is something wrong? also what should my beer look like when i open the bucket, ive heard if its blue, yellow or red thats infected and shouldn't be bottled?

 

[mmonteiro]

its recomended to be fermented at 60-70 degrees. it was a couple degrees over for the first day

 

[Bithead]

You're fine. Let it sit for 2 weeks before bottling.

 

[BPal75]

You'll be fine. Sometimes yeasts just really take off, especially if you used a dry yeast. I've had a dry yeast finish in 36 hours and the beer turned out fine. A little fruity since my temps also got high, but nothin I'd consider an off-flavor. If you were a few over 70 the first day you might not even notice.

If your beer starts turning blue, red, or yellow - well that doesn't sound too good. Green isn't usually a problem, likely it's your hops. As long as you practiced good sanitization youll be ok, especially since it sounds like your yeast took off early.

Welcome to home brewing!

 

[kwingert]

Its probably fine. It may actually be done fermenting, now the yeast are cleaning up the beer. It wouldn't hurt to let it go 10 - 14 days just to make sure the yeast have cleaned up the beer. What was the temp of the beer? If it was warm then the yeast will be pretty active.

 

[Pilotpip]

Airlock activity isn't a good indication of fermentation. As you brew you'll see that some yeast go nuts for days, some don't. Some work fast, some work slow.

Generally, you want to try to stay on the cooler side of the suggested fermentation spectrum. The warmer it gets, the more esters and off flavored will be produced by the yeast.

Last, I'm no expert but I would suggest leaving it in the primary for a couple weeks. This allows the yeast to clean up a lot of the sediment. I racked and bottled my first beer fast, and it didnt turn out good. Since then I've adopted the widely suggested approach here of leaving the beer in primary for a couple weeks before bottling. Then leaving bottled at room temperature for 3 weeks before refrigerating for a couple days prior to drinking. My beers have gotten much better since doing this.

 

[mmonteiro]

thanks guys, im planning on letting it ferment for about 10-14 days, because the 5-7 seemed really short to me.