For me it depends.
I allow a couple of days after fermentation has finished, sometimes I raise the temperature for a day or two, sometimes not. I then look at the beer. If it looks like most of the large particles had dropped I then cold crash for a couple of days at about 35 degrees F.
For a dark, heavy beer I will allow it to sit longer maybe 4 weeks. I often don't bother to cold crash these.
I also have a habit of saying, I will do that tomorrow, that ends up being a week or so later.
So, for me there is no timetable.
When I started, not taking into account any cold crashing, there were 2 camps. The less vocal was you don't need to go any longer that 2 weeks in primary. The other, more vocal camp, said you must leave your beer in primary for at least 4 weeks. I split the difference and went with 3 weeks, which, with my previously mentioned procrastination, often went 4 weeks or longer. I then ran my pipeline dry so I did two successive batches that I packaged on day 14. They were every bit as good,(maybe even better), as the ones that went 4 weeks.
I now aim to package on day 14, but that often gets longer.
So, my brew has stopped fermenting and has been in the fermenter for 15 days. I was going to start cold crashing tonight for two days. Then I was going to bottle this weekend and brew another recipe. However, I'm pausing after reading your post.
I had not read about the more vocal group saying you must leave the beer in the primary for four weeks. What was their reasoning? Did they leave the yeast in there for that time or did they at least dumped the yeast?
So, my brew has stopped fermenting and has been in the fermenter for 15 days. I was going to start cold crashing tonight for two days. Then I was going to bottle this weekend and brew another recipe. However, I'm pausing after reading your post.
I had not read about the more vocal group saying you must leave the beer in the primary for four weeks. What was their reasoning? Did they leave the yeast in there for that time or did they at least dumped the yeast?
Tilts are notoriously slow to change temp. Ignore it completely. Use only the temp probe.
Ok, I've kept the temperature probe reading holding at 36F. The Tilt's temperature reading now flocculates between 42F and 43F. Here I thought it may be the inversion factor....
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