How long do you ferment?

[Keger8tor]

Hello everyone!
I have been reading posts and getting a lot of good info here!
My local brewer supply store has been very helpful as well. Of course I have found conflicting information about different practices.
(We are doing BIAB. In case anyone is wondering.)
We were told to go ahead and wait three weeks in the fermenter. However, my airlock stops bubbling within the first week. (We are only on our third batch. )
My supplier only takes an OG reading and doesn’t bother with the FG reading, just waits 3 weeks. I have read to take 3 FG readings and if they stay the same, go ahead and keg/bottle, but that leads me to another question. Will I risk contamination opening up the fermenter like that? Thanks for your advise.

 

[histo320]

3 weeks is probably ok. Most fermentation will be como by then.

My method is to wait 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean itself up. I cold crash then keg.

I take the SG then don't I the beer until at least 3 weeks if I am going to dry hop. If not dry hopping I don't take another reading until I keg.

Every time you open the fermenter you risk contamination but as long as you sanitize you should be fine.

 

[Keger8tor]

Thanks. What is cold crashing?

 

[Beardless]

3 weeks is probably ok. Most fermentation will be como by then.

My method is to wait 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean itself up. I cold crash then keg.

I take the SG then don't I the beer until at least 3 weeks if I am going to dry hop. If not dry hopping I don't take another reading until I keg.

Every time you open the fermenter you risk contamination but as long as you sanitize you should be fine.

+1 - Unless something else drives me not to, around 4 weeks I take the FG and keg all at once.

 

[Kirkwooder]

First, welcome. Secondly, fermentation can take anywhere from 3 days to a month or more. There are many factors that influence the time it takes to finish a batch of beer. The starting gravity has a huge influence on the time line as does the temperature of the fermenting beer, and the type of yeast used. Most of my beers tend to finish in the 2-3 week range.

Air lock activity is not always a reliable sign of active fermentation. I instead wait until the beer starts to clear. I then give it a few more days before checking gravity. If I find I am at my desired gravity I then bottle. If not I give it a few more days and check it again. If the readings are the same, and the beer is within the comfort range of the yeast's temperature zone, I'll bottle. If there are any questions, let it ride another week. If the beer is on the colder end of the yeast's range, warm it up to the higher side.

 

[histo320]

Thanks. What is cold crashing?

When you place the fermenter in a refrigerator for 48 hours to put the yeast to sleep and let all the sediment settle into the yeast cake.

It is not a necessary step but many Brewers do it.

 

[Keger8tor]

Thanks for the help!!!
Just like a nube I now have to ask what dry hopping is.

 

[Kirkwooder]

Dry hopping is the addition of hops into the fermentor, not the boil. It is usually done to IPA's and APA's.

 

[Keger8tor]

Ah ok, got it. Thanks.

Dry hopping is the addition of hops into the fermentor, not the boil. It is usually done to IPA's and APA's.

 

[kh54s10]

Just waiting 3 weeks is fine until it is not fine. A beer can appear to ferment fully, but actually stop for some reason. If you bottle and fermentation continues you could have bottle bombs. That is where co2 pressure in the bottles exceed the strength of the bottles.

Most fermentations will happen in 3-7 days, then a few more days to clean up and for sediment to drop out of solution.

Best practice: Wait long enough, I go at least 14 days. Take a gravity reading. (If I have the predicted FG, I bottle - not the safest way) wait 36 to 48 hours and take another gravity reading. If the gravity has not dropped,and it is with a point or two of the predicted final gravity, it is safe to bottle, with rare exceptions.

Longer is better and safer, but the ones that say you need to go 3 weeks, a month, or longer are stating an opinion.

Final gravity and a couple days is plenty for most beers.
My practice is 14 days, or clear whichever fits into my schedule. I procrastinate so most of mine are close to 3 weeks, sometimes much longer.

This is outdated but start here: http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

[Alex4mula]

This is from a newbe with 7 brews (2 still in fermenter). I keg. My first and second stayed 4 and 3 weeks. Both tasted very very good. My third and fourth I was out of beer and rushed to keg at two weeks (ferm ended). Both came out good but not as good as the first two. I think they may have that green beer taste people mention. I just kegged my fifth brew at three weeks. It came out very very good again. From now on I will leave them minimum 3-4 weeks. I have a milkshake stout that I plan to not touch until 5 weeks. I cold crash 1-2 days. But this great 5th beer I cold crashed 6 days, used irish moss and gelatin. It works. Apart from good beer came out super clear. Every little detail works

 

[ncbrewer]

If you bottle before fermentation is finished, it will finish after bottling. That, along with the priming sugar, will over-carbonate the beer. You could get bottle bombs, which can be messy and dangerous. I generally wait 16 days and take a gravity sample. Two days later I take another sample - three days would be better with a standard hydrometer. If the gravity is stable and the beer is fairly clear, I bottle. If not I wait a few more days and sample again - this very seldom happens.

I don't have CO2 for purging the fermenter, so I have some concern about air getting in when I sample. So I don't take extra samples during fermentation.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

My supplier only takes an OG reading and doesn’t bother with the FG reading, just waits 3 weeks. I have read to take 3 FG readings and if they stay the same, go ahead and keg/bottle, but that leads me to another question. Will I risk contamination opening up the fermenter like that? Thanks for your advise.

I used to do this when I fermented in carboys because I really didn't like the idea of messing with it. I was more concerned with oxidation than contamination. I would usually give it about 2.5 weeks and package(and take a reading at packaging). Never had any issues. Unless you have the ability to flush the headspace with CO2 every time you open it I'd be a little wary of opening the fermenter too much after fermentation activity dies down.

 

[Keger8tor]

Y’all are giving me a lot of great info!
We are kegging 3 gallons and bottling the rest so far. At least the first batch and probably the second as well. One of my sons doesn’t have a kegerator YET and since we split the cost three ways, he wants his fair share of course! With a that said, my other son and I killed the 3 gallon keg in a matter of days. We just popped open some of the bottles and damnit, we are proud as hell is all I can say!

We may be kegging/ bottling a sweet stout later today. I can hardy wait!
I don’t think I will ever have enough stock brewed to satisfy my own demand. That is my biggest disappointment.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I guess I'm on the low end of the spectrum because I rarely exceed 2 weeks. I typically brew on a Friday. I keg the 2nd Wednesday (12 days after brewing). It's pretty carbonated by that Friday. I'd give it a few extra days if it was high gravity, but most beers have been fine with about 2 weeks.

 

[Lefou]

My beers have the same approximate starting gravities and yeasts so it's very easy to judge when it's time to bottle.
I wait until the yeast cap drops or between 2-3 weeks. No stuck fermentations or broken, over-carbed bottles.
The general rule is when your mashes, yeast health or temperatures are reliably constant, lower gravity beers will typically finish sooner. My FG check is usually on bottling day and it's almost always dead-on with estimated ABV or attenuation range level of the yeast.

 

[BarleyStanding]

First, welcome. Secondly, fermentation can take anywhere from 3 days to a month or more. There are many factors that influence the time it takes to finish a batch of beer. The starting gravity has a huge influence on the time line as does the temperature of the fermenting beer, and the type of yeast used. Most of my beers tend to finish in the 2-3 week range.

Air lock activity is not always a reliable sign of active fermentation. I instead wait until the beer starts to clear. I then give it a few more days before checking gravity. If I find I am at my desired gravity I then bottle. If not I give it a few more days and check it again. If the readings are the same, and the beer is within the comfort range of the yeast's temperature zone, I'll bottle. If there are any questions, let it ride another week. If the beer is on the colder end of the yeast's range, warm it up to the higher side.

+1 for Kirkwooder's comments. Depends on what kind of beer you are brewing, fermentation temperatures, pitch rate/amount, yeast strain, to name a few. I turn higher gravity IPAs from brew to serving 15-20 days. A saison or porter would go 3-4 weeks at least, a Tripel or stout all the way out to several months. You can usually visually tell when a beer starts clearing, so if it comes in at your expected FG, you should be fine, especially if your kegging. For most 1050-1070 OG beers, if you've pitched enough yeast and kept the temperature within the optimal range, primary will finish in 3-5 days. I typically give it at least another week to clean up, but there are all sorts of opinions on this. Use a hydrometer when you think it's done, if not just to figure out if it's finished, but you can also calculate your ABV for anyone that's interested that will drinking your brew.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I used to wait 2.5 weeks then bottle without messing with multiple readings, because I hated the idea of opening the fermenter. Might not be recommended but I never had any issues. Now I keg and ferment in kegs, so I can take readings without exposing it to oxygen so I move it along faster. My last batch I took a reading and taste at day 8 and since it was at predicted FG cold crashed. Since I'm kegging I'm not worried about something blowing up in my face and if my flavor seems to suffer I'll probably adjust my timeline but the few batches I've done this way have turned out real nice.

 

[MaaZeus]

Session strength ales that I ferment in room temperature, 2 weeks minimum. If I get a reading that indicates that it is definetly finished (~1.010-1.012 ballpark) I may bottle immidietly without taking another reading. I'm not saying you should do this, but I am using PET beer bottles so I am not worried about grenades and my beers rarely go below 1.010 unless I use sugar adjuncts or do very low temperature and long mashes.

And I also do another 2 weeks of bottle conditioning in room temperature before transferring them into fridge and drinking few days afterwards.

 

[Iowa Brewer]

Not a noob at all, Keger8tor, this is how we all learn, so just ask away (I know I do!).

Didn't see anyone on here mention diacetyl yet. It creates an buttery or butterscotchy off flavor if the yeast don't eat it up. Last month I had to dump an entire keg because it was so bad.

To avoid, when your fermentation is near its end (3-5pts), raise the temp a bit (if that's an option for you at this point), which will charge-up the yeast a bit and get them chomping on that diacetyl. There's a lot of great threads on here for dealing with it but here's a good link for good measure.

Welcome, and happy brewing!

 

[Jako]

Not a noob at all, Keger8tor, this is how we all learn, so just ask away (I know I do!).

Didn't see anyone on here mention diacetyl yet. It creates an buttery or butterscotchy off flavor if the yeast don't eat it up. Last month I had to dump an entire keg because it was so bad.

To avoid, when your fermentation is near its end (3-5pts), raise the temp a bit (if that's an option for you at this point), which will charge-up the yeast a bit and get them chomping on that diacetyl. There's a lot of great threads on here for dealing with it but here's a good link for good measure.

Welcome, and happy brewing!

RIP beer.

 

[Rev2010]

I've gone back to 4 weeks in the fermenter for the vast majority of my beers then keg. Since I moved and restarted brewing I cut it down to 3 weeks but each time I've been not 100% happy with the beers. Going back over my records for the past two years prior to my move I had switched to 4 weeks and those beers were perfect. So, I recently went back to that. First beer done at 4 weeks came out great. So, Gonna stick to it for now. I find the yeast cleanup and just take care of everything left over after primary fermentation that could possibly lend to off tastes. I did however recently do a test by kegging my hefeweizen at 12 days and surprisingly it came out great. Some day in the future I may try doing two brews of the same beers and keg the both at the same time - one having been in the fermenter two weeks and the other four weeks so I can compare and better judge from there.


Rev.

 

[Druman07]

21 days are my norm. Sometimes a little shorter, or a little longer.

 

[Iowa Brewer]

RIP beer.

T'was a sad day, indeed, Jako