How long do you keep your beer in the primary?

I like to keep mine in the primary for two calendar weeks, move it to a secondary glass carboy for a week/two weeks depending on the OG, then bottle. This is for basic ale recipes, 1.07 or under.

As for why: it seems to work quite well for me. I know just enough science to understand why this works, but not enough to explain in detail.

Regards,

Chris

 

For average gravity ales, 3 weeks because FG has been reached and the yeast has had an opportunity to clean up after itself. Rarely use secondaries. I also try to keep my brewing related activities to the weekends.

 

Until it's done attenuating and there are no off flavors. Add to that (often) enough days to get to the weekend. Depending on yeast strains, gravities, fermentation temps, styles, luck, etc., this could be anywhere from one week to 6 weeks. Yeast don't read our calendars.

 

3-4 weeks for most everything. hefeweizen is about the only style I can think of that gets much less fermenter time with me.

 

At a minimum 2 weeks, usually 3 or 4 weeks depending on what else is going on.

 

I usually give it a couple weeks after vigorous fermentation activity has stopped, then keg. As Vikeman said, yeasts are really bad at reading calendars, and when I sit them down and tell them "I really need you to be done by this date", they ignore me as often as not, the cheeky bastards. The only time I'll rack over to conditioning is if I'm adding extra ingredients that will sit longer than a couple more weeks (e.g. wood, cocoa, some spices, etc.), it's a particularly large beer that needs to sit much longer (e.g. imperial stout, barleywine, etc.), or if it's a lager.

 

Same here, more or less. I brew with a friend and everything is at his house so part of when we actually rack is based on when we can meet up again.

The only time we use a secondary at this point is for adding to it or letting it sit longer. I have no problem letting the beer sit in primary 4 weeks, sometimes more, and then getting it into a keg.

 

I feel like my beers benefit from a 3 week primary and not rushing it but maybe it's just me.

 

If the fermentation was healthy (i.e., no excess diacetyl, etc.) then at the end of fermentation the beer is ready to be packaged. The definition of end of fermentation is when the beer has reached final gravity.

Lots of BAs post about keeping their beers in their primaries for an extended time (e.g., 3 weeks). Unless the beer is still fermenting or the beer has excess off flavor compounds such as diacetyl, there really is no need to keep the beer in a primary for something like 3 weeks.

Cheers!

 

I semi-agree with this. But I'll add that clean up chores tend to lag slightly behind attenuation, even in a nominal 'healthy' fermentation. However, if you determine that final gravity has been reached by comparing hydrometer readings 2-3 days apart, then those 2-3 days were available for cleanup after final gravity was actually reached.

 

Like Jack & Vike, I let gravity readings determine. When terminal gravity is reached, I usually wait ~48 hrs then cold crash the primary carboy at 38 F for 2-3 days and rack to keg from there.

I rigged a cornelius keg to act as a dry hop vessel / conditioning tank by cutting the dip tube about 2" up, so if I dry hop i add the hops to the CT, flush with C02 then rack my cold crashed primary to the CT, flush again and let the dry hop take place. When it's done -> cold crash again 48 hr -> jump it, under C02, to a sanitized serving keg.

 

^ this

 

I do Like Jack Vike hoptualBrew and pointyskull, but all ways try to make prediction on when fermentation ends by considering the estimated F.G. of BeerSmith . Just to be able to plan weekend brewing related activities.

 

Primary on an average 1 week until its fermented out, rack to secondary for a few day to a week.
Then keg for one week to carb, wala beer.
That is unless it goes into a Whiskey Barrel then 6 to 8 weeks there if in the 8G barrel or 5-6 months in the 15G barrels.

 

Most of my beers are in the 1.050 range, and are done fermenting in 4-5 days. I'll give them a couple more days clean up at a higher temp, take a sample, then usually chill to 40 F over a few days. I'll let them sit at that temp for at least a week, and up to 2-3 weeks depending on my schedule, then I'll bottle. So, usually their in the primary for 2-3 weeks, but are chilled for at least half that time.

 

kind of a loaded question.
a 5% abv beer might be done in 5-7 days. a saison will take 3 weeks. an all-brett beer will spend 30 days in primary.

so it depends on:
the grains
the yeast
fermentation temp
OG
FG

in the end, there is never a reason to rush it. hell, leave it for 4 weeks to be safe. 4 weeks is better than racking after a week and the beer not being finished

 

All the 100% Brett beers I've done have reached terminal gravity within 2 weeks. Latest was a Blonde that went from 1.048 -> 1.006 in 10 days.

 

Two weeks in primary, only longer when i'm lazy/busy. I allow my beers to condition a bit in keg during the set it and forget it carbonation period.

I time my brewing based on need in my 3 tap keezer. One tap stays hoppy, one stays wild and one is usually seasonal.

Right now: Galaxy IPA, BSDA, Flanders Red w/ tart cherries. RedRyePA is getting kegged with Amarillo tomorrow. I also have Brett ESB carbed up ready for the Flanders to kick.

 

I agree that IF the beer is done there is no reason to keep it in a primary for 3 weeks, but how do you know it is done? You can take a gravity readings a couple days apart and you can taste your samples to see what is going on. Or you can let it ride for a couple of weeks and not worry about it.

I think at this point it is pretty much accepted that there are no drawbacks to leaving it in primary for 3-4 weeks and there might be benefits so the economist in me says basically zero costs to an extended primary and possibly some benefits imply an extended primary is "worth" it.

With that said, I sometimes will rack to a keg early, but I always leave it in my basement where it can finish up vs. moving directly to the kegerator.