Post fermentation schedule

[Northbank]

On my first beer (a Porter) I just left everything well enough alone for a month while it sat in my primary in a closet and then I bottled it. It has taken a while to bottle condition to a point where it is good but it has gotten there after 6-7 weeks ...

.. for my second beer, an IPA I have more going on, and I have not really come up with a solid plan yet. I have an ounce of amarillo and citra for dry hopping, and was planing dividing them in two, and lobbing some in ten days before bottling and the other half three days before ....

... as I also have now have a freezer rigged up and can cold crash this I am also tempted to and I'm not sure if I should cold crash and then dry hop afterwards, of dry hop and then crash before bottling. Or if I should just leave the crash for another beer.

.... It went into the primary on the 16th and is still clearly fermenting vigorously. I was hoping to bottle on the 30th, it may be too soon, if not the 6th of June will do. D-Day ... is two weeks in the primary and two weeks in the bottle just to short of a turn around? I was hoping to take some camping with me but I don't want to sacrifice the beer to make it happen ..

 

[jm21]

I am just a newbie like you, but I would think two weeks in the primary was plenty. Throw in the hops after a week or so. Some people suggest a little longer and some suggest it could be done more quickly. Take some gravity readings if you're worried. take two readings a couple days apart and if it's the same gravity it's done fermenting. From what I gather APAs and IPAs are pretty quick.

You would dry hop and then cold crash I would think. From my observations dry-hopping can make a beer a bit cloudy, depending on the hop, and cold crashing would help make it clearer again in theory. I don't have any way to cold crash so I can't tell you from personal experience, just from what I've observed about dry-hopping and read about cold crashing.

Everything else I don't feel I know enough to comment on.

 

[seabrew8]

You cold crash after you dry hop to clear your beer. Get use to cold crashing and using gelatin it will make your beer crystal clear - i do it with all my beer. However it will take a few days more to carbonate.

You should be able to make beer in 4 weeks IME easily.

Admittedly, i don't follow some of the dogma around here. For instance, I've bottled beer after only 5 days a few times and it was carbonated in a week. One batch was one of my better extract kit beers in recent memory. I've since moved on to AG which IMO is miles better then extract.

 

[Northbank]

You cold crash after you dry hop to clear your beer. Get use to cold crashing and using gelatin it will make your beer crystal clear - i do it with all my beer. However it will take a few days more to carbonate.

You should be able to make beer in 4 weeks IME easily.

Admittedly, i don't follow some of the dogma around here. For instance, I've bottled beer after only 5 days a few times and it was carbonated in a week. One batch was one of my better extract kit beers in recent memory. I've since moved on to AG which IMO is miles better then extract.

Thanks for this ... I spend a lot of time googling before I ask questions and often find that the answers seem to change over time. If you sit tight for a few more months you'll probably find you are the norm .. and a pioneer .. for a few weeks at least

Thanks for the gelatin hint. That seems pretty straightforward.