Anybody have any experience with this beer? It's been in primary now for two weeks. Instructions say two weeks and an employee at the local homebrew store also said two weeks. I don't really want to open it until I'm ready to bottle. Should I take a gravity reading now or just wait another week?
True Brew brown ale: How long to ferment?
- Thread starter Hooty
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McGarnigle
Well-Known Member
If you haven't taken a reading yet, you might want to do so. I'd probably let it be for another week before bottling regardless, but a reading now would let you know if you've had a problem with a stuck fermentation or something.
I opened it and took a reading. It was 1.026. There was still yeast (I think) floating around on the top. Is that normal after two weeks? I tasted my sample and it wasn't too bad considering it was flat and warm. I didn't know that I was supposed to pour it through a strainer when putting it in the fermenter. Does this matter? This is my first batch. Thanks
The question isn't really how long do you ferment something. Because you ferment something until it's done fermenting.
The question is really "How long do you leave it after fermentation is complete?"
No instruction can tell you how long something is going to take. Because the yeast are in charge, not the writer of the instructions, and not you, the brewer.
If your gravity is at 1.026, then it definitely isn't done yet. Especially if you are seeing krausen.
I would give the fermenter a light swril to kick up any yeast and wrap it in a blanket, or move it to a slightly warmer place. And check the gravtiy in another week.
But you are not done yet by a long shot.
In Mr Wizard's colum in BYO awhile back he made an interesting analogy about brewing and baking....He said that egg timers are all well and good in the baking process but they only provide a "rule of thumb" as to when something is ready...recipes, oven types, heck even atmospheric conditions, STILL have more bearing on when a cake is ready than the time it says it will be done in the cook book. You STILL have to stick a toothpick in the center and pull it out to see if truly the cake is ready.....otherwise you may end up with a raw cake....
Not too different from our beers....We can have a rough idea when our beer is ready (or use the stupid 1-2-3 rule which, doesn't factor in things like yeast lag time or even ambient temp during fermentation and do things to our beer willy nilly, like moving it too early, or thinking our beer is going to be drinkable at 3 weeks....but unless we actually stick "our toothpick" (the hydrometer) in and let it tell us when the yeasties are finished...we too can "f" our beer up.
You can't really do something arbitrarily, you have to learn to "read" your beers, the hydrometer is the best way to do that.
You will find that many of us leave our beers in primary for 3-4 weeks (or more) and only secondary if we are adding fruit or oak, or to dry hop (though many of us dry hop in primary now as well)....and we have found our beer vastly improved by letting the beer stay in contact with the yeast.
There's been a big shift in brewing consciousness in the last few years where many of us believe that yeast is a good thing, and besides just fermenting the beer, that they are fastidious creatures who go back and clean up any by products created by themselves during fermentation, which may lead to off flavors.
Rather than the yeast being the cause of off flavors, it is now looked at by many of us, that they will if left alone actually remove those off flavors, and make for clearer and cleaner tasting beers.
Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;
The question is really "How long do you leave it after fermentation is complete?"
No instruction can tell you how long something is going to take. Because the yeast are in charge, not the writer of the instructions, and not you, the brewer.
If your gravity is at 1.026, then it definitely isn't done yet. Especially if you are seeing krausen.
I would give the fermenter a light swril to kick up any yeast and wrap it in a blanket, or move it to a slightly warmer place. And check the gravtiy in another week.
But you are not done yet by a long shot.
In Mr Wizard's colum in BYO awhile back he made an interesting analogy about brewing and baking....He said that egg timers are all well and good in the baking process but they only provide a "rule of thumb" as to when something is ready...recipes, oven types, heck even atmospheric conditions, STILL have more bearing on when a cake is ready than the time it says it will be done in the cook book. You STILL have to stick a toothpick in the center and pull it out to see if truly the cake is ready.....otherwise you may end up with a raw cake....
Not too different from our beers....We can have a rough idea when our beer is ready (or use the stupid 1-2-3 rule which, doesn't factor in things like yeast lag time or even ambient temp during fermentation and do things to our beer willy nilly, like moving it too early, or thinking our beer is going to be drinkable at 3 weeks....but unless we actually stick "our toothpick" (the hydrometer) in and let it tell us when the yeasties are finished...we too can "f" our beer up.
You can't really do something arbitrarily, you have to learn to "read" your beers, the hydrometer is the best way to do that.
You will find that many of us leave our beers in primary for 3-4 weeks (or more) and only secondary if we are adding fruit or oak, or to dry hop (though many of us dry hop in primary now as well)....and we have found our beer vastly improved by letting the beer stay in contact with the yeast.
There's been a big shift in brewing consciousness in the last few years where many of us believe that yeast is a good thing, and besides just fermenting the beer, that they are fastidious creatures who go back and clean up any by products created by themselves during fermentation, which may lead to off flavors.
Rather than the yeast being the cause of off flavors, it is now looked at by many of us, that they will if left alone actually remove those off flavors, and make for clearer and cleaner tasting beers.
Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;
How To Brew said:
No it doesn't matter.
Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...
I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.
In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.
What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.
But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller for christmas last year I just dumped for the majority of my batches.
So just leave it, it will all settle out in the fermenter.
jamesjensen1068
Well-Known Member
I just bottled my first batch ever last night. I hit the 1.020 mark as my final gravity after 2 weeks in the primary. Make sure you account for the temp conversion with your hydrometer reading. The mistake I think I made with this batch was not activating the yeast before pitching it. I think I would of made the 1.010-1.012 mark if I did. As a result of not getting the lower gravity I adjusted the priming sugar down from 5oz to 3.5 so as not to have bombs. This was done at the suggestion of my local HBS guy. Brown Ales tend not to be a strongly carbonated beer so I felt ok doing this. The samples I took for gravity reading tasted really good. Best of luck with your batch.
Thanks for all the good info. It's been in my basement which is heated and is a constant 64 degrees. I could move it upstairs where it is warmer during the day but the temp drops at night (programmable thermostat). Is a 5 or 6 degree swing in temperature going to stall the fermentation? Would I be better off leavin it in the basement where it is cooler but constant? Also, what type of FG should I be looking for?
thanks,
Hooty
thanks,
Hooty
jamesjensen1068
Well-Known Member
That kit recommends a FG of 1.010 - 1.012. From what I've learned on this site and reading you take your beginning gravity and divide by 4. So if the beginning gravity was 1.044 you take 44 divided by 4 = 11, so the FG would need to be somewhere around 1.011.
It would be best to know what your beginning gravity was...then calculate.
It would be best to know what your beginning gravity was...then calculate.
troutab81
Well-Known Member
Not sure what the yeast you utilized was, but I would just let it sit after swirling it and moving it somewhere warmer. Take a gravity reading in about 3-4 days and if it isn't moving, you have a stuck fermentation and consult back with the board and searches about that.
Chances are, the yeasty is just taking its sweet time.
Chances are, the yeasty is just taking its sweet time.
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