How long do you keep your beer in the primary?

14-28 days is pretty typical. I always check to see that the beer is done using hydrometer and taste bugs. I've done a few in 10 and under including milds, bitters, hefes, and pale ales. However, I've found acetaldehyde problems with some of these beers. Fortunately the yeast took care of it during bottle priming. Now that I keg, I do not have the bottle priming period to help me out. I have a growing dislike for diacetyl, that other off flavor of unfinished beer, so I have been willing to wait longer to package.

 

Immediately after final gravity has been reached there is still fine particulate matter suspended in the beer, and I find that allowing additional time for the final particulates to settle out improves the flavor and presentation of the beer. Head formation in particular can benefit from allowing fine particulate matter to settle out as particulates act as nucleation sites and can create a more fizzy head whereas a beer free of particulates creates a creamier longer lasting head. Furthermore, I think there's plenty of evidence that high gravity beers can benefit from bulk aging and think that one does beers like barleywines and RISs a disservice by packaging them immediately after final gravity is reached.

To answer the OPs question, I keep beers in primary for anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks depending on the style of beer.

 

7-10 days for me for typical ales. Most ales are at FG at 4-6 days. A few days to clean up after that and then it's on to the keg for carbonation and possibly a cold conditioning period depending on the style.

Higher gravity stuff stays in for about 13-14 days. Dry hopped beers also stay in for 13-14 days.

My cold conditioning time in the keg varies depending on the beer. My wheats are grain to glass in 9-10 days. Pale ales (APAs and IPAs) are grain to glass in 9-14 days. More complex beers take a few weeks of cold conditioning to round out a bit. Obviously certain styles will condition for months.

The key is to have a healthy fermentation by paying attention to pitching rates, temperature, oxygen, and nutrients. This will greatly reduce the time that the yeast take to clean up undesirable byproducts like diacetyl and acetaldehyde.

 

Depends on the beer, but it is rare that I have enough time during the week to brew or bottle so they tend to stay in primary for 1 week, 2 weeks(most of my beers fall into this) or 3 weeks

 

while airlock activity isn't a marker, i tend to leave my brett beer in primary for a month because i do see occasional airlock burps. since they aren't brett IPAs, there's no harm at the homebrew level for me to leave it.
i've never had a 10 day termination, though. but i also tend to brew higher OGs than your example above.

this is what i don't get.
if brewers typically make a 5 gallon batch, are they collecting 100 mL every 2 days, checking the gravity, then tossing that beer?
they're increasing risk of oxidation and infection, plus they're wasting precious cargo.
since none of us are on time constraints or selling our beer, i err on the side of laziness time-wise and let that fucker ride until it meets the eyeball and tongue test, and then let it go for a few more days.

hell, my TenFiddy clone was sampled on Sunday. Today's friday. it was good to rack then, but i just want to make sure it's done. and it's passover, so i don't want to be tempted to drink that divineness.

 

woah....

 

Yep. Taste bugs. Genetically engineered microbes that you pipet into your hydrometer sample. They turn colors that tell you the levels of diacetyl, acetaldehyde, DMS, isoamyl acetate, fusel alcohols, etc. So far, I've only managed to develop bugs that will taste the beer for you. I'm working on a bug cocktail that will actually drink your beer for you, which I expect to be especially popular among new homebrewers that are prone to make a lot of mistakes.

 

Typically 3 weeks. If I'm dry hopping, I'll give it 10-14 days. Take a sample when I open up to dry hop and then another 3 days later.

I've got a 1.039 Bitter that I made last Friday that I'm trying to rush - partially out of curiosity, partially because I think it'll be fine. I plan to open it up today or tomorrow to take a sample and dry hop the hell out of it (2oz Cascade, 1 oz Glacier, .5 oz Chinook) and hopefully move to bottle next Friday.

 

You da man!

Cheers!