Sitting in Fermenter vs Bottles?

Searched around and didn't find anything to really answer my question. Anyways, I'm having people over in about a month and would like to have a few bottles of my current brew ready (hefe). Since I bottle I gotta allow em 3 weeks to carb up which gives me about a week of spare time to work with (which I would like to use to get em nice and cold ).

Fermentation has been going for about 10 days & gravity is stable. What are the advantages/disadvantages of letting it sit in the fermenter for longer versus in bottles?

I usually use the 3 week rule and just forget about it until bottling time, but I would like to rush this one through if at all possible.

TLDR: I'm at a stable FG after 10 days, why should I let it sit in the fermenter versus in bottles? What negative effects, if any, can I experience?

Negative affects = none. Aging in the bottles, to me is priceless. AGING, in the bottle, as far as I can see can only help a beer.

I recently took a trip and dragged some of my, kind of young, brews with me and the extra time in the bottles only made them better. I thought about carrying them up in a cooler and decided last minute to just leave them in the boxes and chill them before drinking. EVERY SINGLE BREW WAS AWESOME!!!!

To ME, bottle aging is what made my travelling brews even that much better.

Yah I'm leaning towards bottling for that exact reason. More time to bottle condition and I figure if fermentation is done what can sitting in a fermenter do that sitting in a bottle can't? But I am a noob so I figured I should ask to avoid ruining a batch

Bottles if it was me in a rush. The day i saw the hydrometer sink down low I would bottle on the next day. Ive been given a large amount of cases of all kinds of brew from another home brewer before i started to brew myself. Aging in bottle conditioning is defiantly an amazing thing. Cures almost any doubt. Save a few of each of your batches to age a year and a half. You won't regret it. Opened something about a month ago that was unintentionally, slightly yet amazingly refreshingly sour, but packed with the best activity ive ever seen. A little more than two years old.

Or if you've got a little extra bucks put together a kegging system for a party.

I agree with the above posts. Go ahead and bottle it if you are sure it is done fermenting. At this point though your party was had, how did everything turn out?

I haven't had a Hefe in the fermenter for longer than 14 days. Heck they are usually done in 8 to 10. Bottle conditioning is good for the beer.

Acyr90 said:

Since I bottle I gotta allow em 3 weeks to carb up which gives me about a week of spare time to work with (which I would like to use to get em nice and cold ).

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Also... how does it take a week to chill your beer? Unless I'm reading your initial post wrong.

Gary

I'd guess the extra time for chilling could be to reduce chill haze...but I don't really know. Only time I refrigerate homebrew for extended periods is if I try one and I think to myself "this is so good right now, it has reached perfection, and I have no interest in seeing what effects further aging may have"

...which is to say...never.

And as for OP's question, I agree with everyone else, bottles will age something just as well as plastic post-fermentation. I typically age my apfelwein in bottles for 2 months after a month in the primary, works great. Only issue OP might have is the relatively short aging period might not give the yeast enough time to clean up any off flavors, but that all depends on how the beer fermeented out.

Question from a newbie - Looking at recipes for what will be my fourth batch of beer I see many that following fermentation and before bottling I story in secondary at 50 degrees for a few weeks. I don't have the ability to do this.My previous beers, all of which I bottled after two weeks once gravity was stable, I aged in bottle for 2-3 weeks, then refrigerated for a couple of weeks, and they were fine. So, how critical is this pre-bottling aging at 50 degrees? Will bottle aging at 65 - 70 degrees be a satisfactory alternative?

glenholster said:

Question from a newbie - Looking at recipes for what will be my fourth batch of beer I see many that following fermentation and before bottling I story in secondary at 50 degrees for a few weeks. I don't have the ability to do this.My previous beers, all of which I bottled after two weeks once gravity was stable, I aged in bottle for 2-3 weeks, then refrigerated for a couple of weeks, and they were fine. So, how critical is this pre-bottling aging at 50 degrees? Will bottle aging at 65 - 70 degrees be a satisfactory alternative?

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Is the recipe for a lager? Lager yeast work a little differently than ale yeast, and lagers typically require a period of aging at lower temperatures after fermentation but before bottling/kegging. I have never actually brewed a lager, simply because I tend to not enjoy them as much as ales, but that sounds the most like what you are talking about.

If it is NOT a lager recipe, than I wouldn't think an extended aging period at a lower temp would be required at all. I always just age at fermentation temp, which for me is room temp most of the time. Same for aging in bottles.

So to sum it up: If it is a lager, you should probably "lager" it (age at a cold temp). If it is an ale, 65-70 in a bottle should be fine.

Hefs are best drank young. Ferment for 8-10 days and take them off primary right when final gravity is reached. Bottle and let them carb up typically 2-3 weeks as hefs are generally lower alcohol, less than 5.5% so they generallly carb pretty quick. Chill and drink as soon as cold. The only thing chilling for extended periods of time on this brew wil do is drop the yeast out of suspension more which is what you dont want as the yeast is the beauty of the hef. Also aging at room temp after its fully carbed is not needed either as the hef flavors will fade more and more hence why drinking them young is best.

Thanks, LowNotes. This is just what I needed to know. This is an ale, by the way, so you have confirmed what I thought. Much appreciated.