Recipe ambiguity

[Estebandido]

I'm making the pale ale from Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, on page 171. The final instructions are "Ferment and bottle or keg. You should be enjoying this in three weeks."

Uh, great, but a newbie like me needs more specifics on how long to ferment and how long to let it sit in the bottles before enjoying it. Can anyone help?

 

[fezzersc]

Prolly means ferment for 2 weeks, bottle for one.

 

[rudu81]

Let it ferment for 2-3 weeks and carb in the bottle for 3 weeks at 70 F. I do four in primary and 4 in bottle because I don't get 70 F in winter.

 

[jer204]

I primary pale ales for 10-14 days and secondary for a week just to help clear it up. Bottle conditioning vaires, but its usually drinkable within 2-3 weeks after bottling.

 

[WuWeiBrewing]

You've got one of two easy options for monitoring the fermentation and figuring out when it's time to bottle: wait for the bubbles in the airlock to be about 2 or so minutes apart, or take a hydrometer reading when activity in the airlock really slows down (probably about at least a week and a half after pitching). If you go with the latter of the two, if you find the gravity to be the same two nights in a row, then you're good.

Assuming you aren't adding anything to secondary (I don't have the book right in front of me, but I'm pretty sure Charlie doesn't have you dry hopping anything), your bottle conditioning should take about 10-14 days. I usually give it at least the 14 days (longer if it's cold outside, and thus, cooler than usual inside).

The 3 week quote for the recipe is probably in regard to the fermentation being done in about a week (this one might be relatively fast for him), and not a fast conditioning in the bottle (still assume about 2).

 

[ksbrain]

Yes ferment until it's done then bottle it.

It's normally easiest to plan these things for weekends. So most likely it will be ready to bottle in two weeks. If it's still bubbling in two weeks, then wait another week before bottling. A month should be totally safe, if you can manage to wait that long.

Then bottle and in a week you can start testing bottles to see if it's ready. It probably will develop for another few weeks in the bottle, but is probably going to be good enough for you after a week. Just notice how it develops as time goes on and plan how you want to run your next fermentation/bottle conditioning schedule.

 

[Hang Glider]

I'm making the pale ale from Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, on page 171. The final instructions are "Ferment and bottle or keg. You should be enjoying this in three weeks."

Uh, great, but a newbie like me needs more specifics on how long to ferment and how long to let it sit in the bottles before enjoying it. Can anyone help?

Look at the copyright date on that book -
I have every respect for Charlie, but he's not updating that book every year - and while he certainly helped get everyman to be able to homebrew, many things have evolved in this hobby. So read around this forum, it's more current. Don't toss out his information, but there are now better ways (all-grain, for example), than that book shows.

General consensus around this board is a good 4 weeks in the fermenter for most beers (longer for porters, stouts, barleywines), then 3 weeks in the bottle at 70F. Then chill and enjoy.

So, plan for 7+ week round trips. This is why many of us own several fermenters - gotta keep the pipeline in rotation!

 

[broadbill]

Look at the copyright date on that book -
I have every respect for Charlie, but he's not updating that book every year - and while he certainly helped get everyman to be able to homebrew, many things have evolved in this hobby. So read around this forum, it's more current. Don't toss out his information, but there are now better ways (all-grain, for example), than that book shows.

General consensus around this board is a good 4 weeks in the fermenter for most beers (longer for porters, stouts, barleywines), then 3 weeks in the bottle at 70F. Then chill and enjoy.

So, plan for 7+ week round trips. This is why many of us own several fermenters - gotta keep the pipeline in rotation!

When I started homebrewing 10 years ago, CP's recipes were slightly out of date! I can only imagine how they look today!

 

[Hang Glider]

When I started homebrewing 10 years ago, CP's recipes were slightly out of date! I can only imagine how they look today!

hadn't thought about that - omg - 2001 to 2011 - 10 years for me, too!

 

[Flomaster]

You've got one of two easy options for monitoring the fermentation and figuring out when it's time to bottle: wait for the bubbles in the airlock to be about 2 or so minutes apart, or take a hydrometer reading when activity in the airlock really slows down (probably about at least a week and a half after pitching). If you go with the latter of the two, if you find the gravity to be the same two nights in a row, then you're good.

.

taking a Hydro reading is THE ONLY way to tell if your fermentation is done. bubbles in air lock don't mean jack chit.

-=Jason=-

 

[Estebandido]

Look at the copyright date on that book -
I have every respect for Charlie, but he's not updating that book every year - and while he certainly helped get everyman to be able to homebrew, many things have evolved in this hobby. So read around this forum, it's more current.

So, plan for 7+ week round trips. This is why many of us own several fermenters - gotta keep the pipeline in rotation!

Uh, recipes are evolving that fast? After 3000 years of making beer?

And, for the record, my carboy of APA is right next to my carboy of cyser.

 

[Golddiggie]

taking a Hydro reading is THE ONLY way to tell if your fermentation is done. bubbles in air lock don't mean jack chit.

-=Jason=-

+10 on that...

Plan 2-4 weeks in primary, then ~3-4 weeks @70F for bottle conditioning low to moderate gravity brews (under about 1.075)... Bigger brew take longer...

Before you bottle, or take it off the yeast, TASTE the hydrometer sample... If it has off flavors, or tastes 'yeasty' leave it on the yeast cake.

Fermentation temperature, of the wort, not air temp, also plays a big role in when your brew will be ready... This depends on the actual yeast your using. Get the wort temp within the temperature range for the desired profile, and you'll get that impact on the brew... Such as cooler for citrus notes, warmer for more esters, etc...

There's more to brewing than just boiling up some water, tossing some yeast in, and two weeks later you have great beer. Sure, you can get something drinkable that way, but you'll get something better if you work with the ingredients more... It doesn't take long before you're wanting that fermentation chamber so that you can have the wort at the right temp when the yeast is going ape... Or getting other things to help you get something even better...

I would say that about 95% of things that might go wonky on you can be fixed if you give the brew enough time... Time on the yeast, time to age, time to carbonate in the bottles, or even in the keg... Remember... RDWHAHB

 

[broadbill]

Uh, recipes are evolving that fast? After 3000 years of making beer?

I would say they are evolving....only a couple of years ago, Dark IPAs weren't being brewed and Sorachi Ace or Citra hops weren't on the shelves of homebrew stores...just a couple of examples...

 

[WuWeiBrewing]

taking a Hydro reading is THE ONLY way to tell if your fermentation is done. bubbles in air lock don't mean jack chit.

-=Jason=-

Well, I wouldn't say the bubbles don't mean jack chit... They certainly are an indication of how active the fermentation is. But yes, to be precise, a reading is needed to determine when it's finished.

 

[ksbrain]

taking a Hydro reading is THE ONLY way to tell if your fermentation is done. bubbles in air lock don't mean jack chit.

-=Jason=-

I am so sick of seeing this oversimplification repeated over and over again.

Bubbles are generally a good indication of activity. It's not the end-all-be-all indicator, but it's a tremendously valuable preliminary gauge.

Bubbles can be confusing when they occur after transfer to secondary, as they could be a release of CO2 from the already fermented beer, rather than an indication of new activity. Same is true of bubbles after adding dry hops.

Lack of bubbles can be confusing if your lid is not sealed, because you could be leaking out the lid and see no bubbles, but still have fermentation activity.

If your fermentation is fast you could miss all the bubbles, so you might see none and think nothing is happening.

But generally I would consider bubbles a good indication of activity. It's true you won't know for sure what the gravity is without a reading, but you can pretty much tell what's going on based on bubbles, with a few exceptions, some of which are noted above.

 

[Golddiggie]

Bubbles only tell you when active fermentation is going on, and the yeast is producing a lot of gas... Once things slow down, they will become far less frequent. But, this does NOT mean the brew is done. You can go from tons of airlock movements, to one every 5+ minutes in a 7-10 days. Does that mean the brew is done?? F no... Hydrometer/refractometer readings will tell you when you've hit your FG. But, tasting the brew will tell you when it's actually ready to be bottled/kegged...

There are factors that impact how long that takes. For most, at least some of those factors are outside of our control. With time, you'll get the list down to just a few items... Important things include, wort temperature (especially during active fermentation), how many yeast cells get pitched in, oxygen level of the wort when the yeast goes in... There are more items, but those are high on the list...

I used to use the airlock activity to help me to determine when a brew was 'done'... No more... Just as I used to think you had to rack to secondary to get clear brew... :cross: All it took was one long primary to convince me that secondary is not needed for clearing brews... In fact, the majority of the time, you're better off just leaving it on the yeast.