Beer making how long to ferment

I've kegged beer after two weeks that tasted pretty green, but after a couple weeks on the gas, it smooths right out to what I was looking for. Someone here had suggested leaving the beer in the primary for four weeks as opposed to conditioning in the keg; I tried it and voila! Very nice beer. So it's what I do. I have a fermenter of Funky Rye that has been there for 23 days sitting and quietly getting better. It's about time to cold-crash it, fine it, and then keg and carbonate it.

I might start crashing it tonite, but since I have a partial keg of it on tap, there's no hurry. That's the beautiful thing about having a pipeline; I've learned patience! The best way to be sure is to let gravity readings tell you if it's done. For me, I wait at least 2 weeks, usually 3 weeks, but that is just my personal preference.

The angle I was most accurately describing would be the conditioning as mentioned earlier. I just breed a malt extract imperial stout, let it ferment gor 2 weeks before bottling, let it sit for 2 weeks in the bottle, and I couldn't believe it, but I had absolutely no sediment in my bottles. Considering I didn't let it sit inthe primary for 4 weeks, I'd be pretty interested if I could let it sit in the primary for that long, as long as it doesn't disrupt the quality of the beer.

How true is this though? Does an extra set of weeks usually produce a better quality beer, or at least help with sediment deposit? Yooper Ale's What Cures You! Staff member. Fenix26 said:. I cold crash 1. BigFloyd Well-Known Member. What Yooper mentioned is one of the more consistent and easily done practices for ales. Simply let it ride 10 days, check gravity. Check it again in 3 days. Joined Feb 12, Messages Reaction score 3. To add, I'm on week two of my fermentation. I took a reading and it's damn close to what my recipe calls for.

The issue is I still see little bubbles floating up from the yeast cake to the top of the fermenter. Not many, but there are some. Do you think it's safe to package it up even after it's hit the numbers yet still slightly bubbling? When your beer is fermenting the yeast excretes lots of CO2 and some of this gets dissolved into the beer.

When the fermentation is complete there is more CO2 dissolved than the beer can hold so some of it outgasses and this can continue for some time. How much the beer can hold is dependant on temperature so a priming calculator will ask for the beer temp to decide on how much residual carbonation there is so it can compute the amount of sugar needed to get you to the right amount of carbonation.

The bubbles you see rising from the yeast layer are just the residual CO2 outgassing. Use your hydrometer to determine if any more fermentation is occurring. Two reading a couple days apart that match says the the fermentation is done and you can then bottle. Since I bottle, I take two SG readings two days apart to be sure fermentation is finished - bottle on the day of the second reading.

But I also like to minimize the exposure to the air not everyone agrees with this. So I go with three weeks in the fermenter. After three weeks it's always been finished as indicated by stable gravity , so I don't have to open and sample again.

As a side benefit, it results in clearer beer than I have gotten when I bottled after two weeks. BearHillEast Member. Joined Dec 3, Messages 12 Reaction score 2. Joined Sep 26, Messages Reaction score Traditionally, this style is brewed in May and tapped or bottled in late September or early October, or roughly six months. Some extra time in the secondary will go a long way toward improving the quality of an amber lager. Most but not all dark lagers are higher in alcohol.

Most of the medium gravity recipe kits sold by Midwest contain 6 lbs. By comparison, some of the dark lagers contain upwards of 12 lbs! This will translate to a longer fermentation time, due to the amount of alcohol being produced. Alcohol itself has a very bitter taste, and it takes some time to mellow out. Extra aging time will really help these beers out. For styles such as Bavarian Doppelbock, Bohemian Dark Lager or Schwarzwald Black Lager, our recommendation is months in primary, and 9 months in secondary.

In some cases, you might even want to keep the beer in secondary longer. Just make sure to check the airlock from time to time to make sure there is still water in it. Some styles may even require several years in the secondary before they are ready to drink. Download our How Long is the Fermentation Process doc here.

Oct 25, How Long is the Fermentation Process? A note about ales vs. Why fermentation time varies The amount of time a beer needs to ferment depends on the style and type of beer being made. I no longer use a secondary fermenter for ales you can read more about this here. I usually keep my ales in the primary fermenter for a total of weeks before cold crashing and kegging.

This completely ensures that fermentation has fully completed AND the yeast has had a chance to clean up unwanted byproducts produced by fermentation. This is also usually ample time for sediment to fall out of suspension and clear up the beer.

Most finished beers will have a final specific gravity of 1. Use your hydrometer to take a final gravity reading to see if it has completed fermentation. If your beer reads at FG or very close, then your beer has completed the vast majority of fermentation.

If you carefully taste your beer as it progresses through conditioning, you will notice a gradual improvement over the course of 2 weeks. By day 14, most if not all harshness and off-flavors you tasted early on will have mellowed or be rendered undetectable.

I think this is a valuable exercise for beginners. Just be careful about sanitizing anything you put in your fermenter to take samples. Ideally, you should pull a small sample via a spigot on the fermenter to prevent opening or oxidation.