Help fellow homebrewers. I'm currently fermenting a batch of Belgian dubbel (a kit). One week has passed and one week still to go. The problem is that I won't have the caps in time for bottling and I would like to know in your experience if it's possible to keep the wort one more week in the fermentation tank. That would be three weeks instead of the recommended two so I can wait for the caps to arrive. Thanks for your help and inputs. Cheers!!!
It won't hurt to wait longer. The two weeks given in the recipe is merely a guideline which you should never use as a hard rule. The only way to know when your beer is done is to know that fermentation has stopped and you do this by taking hydrometer readings. You also need to be within a few points of the expected final gravity of what is included in your recipe. You need to take several hydrometer readings within a 3-4 day period, and if the readings are the same, and you are near the expected FG, then the beer is done. Even if your readings show the beer is done and you don't have your caps yet, just let the beer sit. A little extra time allows the yeast to clean up after itself and improve the beer.
It won't hurt. It will probably help. Any recipe instructions that give you a specific fermentation time are crap instructions. What you need to do is make sure attenuation is complete and that any off-flavors have been cleaned up. You really don't need several readings during that time. Two readings, 3 days apart, will tell you what you need to know.
No problem whatsoever, as long as you keep the fermented beer under the right temperature range. Belgian dubbel liquid yeast go's around 65-78° F. Make sure you are on the right side of your specific yeast tolerance. Longer fermentation or aging usually clear the beer and improve flavor complexity. No matter what your beer recipe instruction say, always use hydrometer to figure out if your beer finished fermenting.
Are you planning a secondary? That would be the easiest way to eliminate the worry. If FG is stable transfer to a secondary and you could wait months provided the temperature control was good and ~0 head space in the secondary.
Permit me to be the first to state that a secondary is not needed here. You may keep your beer in he primary for three weeks (and four weeks and five weeks) with no issues. If you bottle after a few weeks in the primary then every little thing is Okilley Dokilley. Cheers!
2 weeks in primary for a dubbel is not enough time, so your caps not being there = blessing in disguise. 4 weeks minimum in primary + 4 weeks minimum bottle conditioning for a dubbel will yield a tasty beer. (Assuming you've taken gravity readings and the yeast completed its job).
