true brew red ale

[MedicBrewer911]

I am on my 4th batch of brew. I was told from multiple people that 2-2-2 is the best timing out there FOR ALES. 2 weeks in primary fermenter, 2 weeks for bottle conditioning and 2 weeks in the fridge. All of my batches of brew have turned out GREAT. I do not use a secondary fermenter for Ales... the yeasties do the cleanup work themselves!

by the way, if anyone is looking for one of the best beers Ive ever drank... Trubrews "Oktoberfest Ale" is one of the best. Easy to brew and was great in color, smell and taste. I highly recommend it for all the new brewers out there!

 

[Spicemon1972]

thanks for the ideas - so essentially fermentation will be done when it completely stops bubbling? (sorry for being a n00b!)

I wish it was that easy but bubbles or the lack thereof in the airlock isn't a very good indicator of fermentation happening or not. What you want to do is give the beer a couple of weeks in primary then sanitize your beer thief and take a gravity reading and record it. Do this until you get three days in a row of the same reading. At that point, you can consider fermentation done, the yeasties have done their best. At this point, you can rack to secondary if your recipe calls for it, leave it alone for another week or so to clear up ( even if the yeast isn't doing much, it is still working on that beer and cleaning it up for you, no harm in leaving it on the yeast a little longer) or you can rack into your bottling bucket and bottle. Remember to give your beer at least 3 weeks in the bottle to carb up and mellow out. I have found that most beers are a little green before three weeks in the bottle.
Cheers!