How Long Should a Batch Be Kept in Primary?

“ ..getting the batch off the dregs to prevent any off-flavoring.” I personally do not think this is a genuine issue.

A suspect that you will see a number of BAs post that a secondary is not necessary. You will also see some discussion that there is a risk (albeit a small risk) of oxygen getting introduced to the beer during the transfer from the primary to the secondary; therefore it is ‘better’ to not secondary.

I personally do not utilize a secondary for my ales (high gravity ales as well). I have never experienced any off flavors from keeping my ales in the primary fermenter (I use a plastic bucket) for several weeks.

Cheers!

 

I am comfortable with 6 weeks for no better reason then the fact that is about as long as I have gone. I have heard from plenty of others to go up to 8 weeks, but can't comment as I have not done it myself.

 

These sound like incredibly long primary fermentation times compared with what I've been doing.

I'm at the very novice stages of brewing and still brewing off directions from Brewers Best kits. The kits are pretty straightforward about 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in bottle.

Is this totally wrong? I have a hydrometer but haven't used it yet since the directions just say 2 weeks.

 

I am aware of what the printed material says, and gave my disclaimer that I "have not yet gone this long". But, I might argue that printed material covers many "myths" about homebrewing in them as fact (which I won't get into, in order to conserve this thread as it was meant to be).

And, by all means. I am not saying autolysis doesn't happen, I am just not sure we need to worry as much as they make it seem.

 

When I do a lower gravity, extract brew, I don't secondary at all. The wort going into the fermenter is clean except for a little hop debris, and the yeast is done in a short enough period of time to go right to bottling in 2 weeks.

Higher gravity, partial mash beers have a lot of debris in the wort, since I haven't rigged up a way to strain it very well going into the fermenter yet. I let it finish in the primary bucket, then let it settle for a bit, and usually rack it off the initial trub/older yeast after 10 days - 2 weeks.

 

One of my takeaways from "yeast" was that homebrew batches are relatively stress-free for yeast. Many of the factors leading to the autolysis the big brewers worry about are practically non-existent in a carboy or bucket. This means you can leave a beer on the yeast cake for a couple months with hardly a worry.

 

This has been debated on other forums to no end. There are home brewers on the side of 2 weeks and get it off the yeast cake and there are others that are in the 4 week range. There are reasons on both sides of the fence. I do four weeks for every beer. The way I understand it is that yeast release "stuff" into your beer when it ferments and the longer time allows the yeast to clean back up after itself. I have done 30+ brew sessions with never an issue letting the beer sit on the yeast cake for that period of time.

For hoppy beers, I usually rack on dry hops after 3 weeks. For high gravity, I go into secondary/brite tank after 4 weeks and let it age.

Your preference can be set here based on your style: are you patient or impatient? I find this to a big point for people in which option they really choose.

 

The big one being the ginormous weight of the beer on the yeast cake.

 

Go by the taste, not the time.