How long to leave in carboy?

[Keezers]

I chose my first homebrew to be the Brewers Best Scottish Ale kit. I'm confused if I should follow the instructions and bottle after about a week or let it sit for longer. I have noticed after reading through forums that people leave the beer set for a lot longer. Any advise will help. Thank You!

 

[m00ps]

Try taking a sample around 2 weeks in. Take another sample a few days after that. If its the same FG, you should be ok to bottle. If you want to leave it longer, even a month or more, it wont hurt it

 

[Keezers]

Thank you m00ps I appreciate the quick response. I will do that.

 

[carloscede2]

Hope you didnt use corn sugar with the kit lol. I usually leave it in the primary for 2 complete weeks and it is always ok. Just take a hydrometer reading before you decide to bottle and if it matches your final gravity, bottle (usually less than 1.015)

 

[CJ-3]

I have brewed that kit and it made a pretty good beer. Make sure to take geavity readings, mine was not finished fermenting after the first week. It fermented slowly and was done after 10 days.

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

2 weeks is a minimum but 3 weeks is a safe bet.

All thats really happening is the yeast are cleaning up byproducts (off-flavours) from the fermentation, namely diacetyl (butter) and acetaldehyde (green apples). After 2 weeks there a risk of these being present but by 3 weeks you will be in the clear.

A good way to become more familiar with these off-flavours is to take samples at various stages during the fermentation (ex. 1 week, 2 weeks) to see how the flavour profiles evolves over the 3 weeks.

Once bottled, leave at room temperature for 3 weeks and then (ideally) store them to somewhere close to 13c/55f. This slows down the development of stale flavours (such as wet cardboard) cause my oxidation.

 

[PADave]

I leave mine for 3 weeks min.

 

[IchLiebeBier]

I usually do 10-14 days, but I almost always rack to secondary. The only time I don't is with a Hefeweizen, but I let it go 14 days minimum.

Luckily, I've never been high on the FG, but I always start with the right amount of yeast according to YeastCalc.

 

[jfk69]

If you controlled ferment temperature and pitched the proper amount of yeast, there's no reason that 10 days shouldn't be sufficient. If you're not sure on either of the above, let it go 14-17. I generally go anywhere from 10-14 days unless I'm dry hopping. If you took care of temperature and pitch rates, usually by day 10 the yeast have finished cleaning the house and are kicking back on the sofa to watch a game.