when to bottle?

1.) I would let it go at least another week in primary. If you want to be rigorous about it, you can measure the gravity a few days apart. If it hasn't changed, you can go ahead and bottle. (Personally I am less rigorous and I usually just bottle after 3 weeks with no difficulties.)

2.) I let my beer sit for 2 weeks after bottling before I put it in the refrigerator. After that, you will probably not be able to wait much longer, but the beer might benefit from a week or two at refrigerator temperatures.

 

For carbonation...until it's done. Depending on temperature, yeast health, and ABV, this could take anywhere from a week to a few months. I agree with @minderbender about the 2 week mark, but as a time to open one and see. Keeping your bottles at about 70F or so is a good way to help prevent "Why isn't my beer carbonating?" threads. For a typical IPA, two weeks should be enough. For a first homebrew IPA, YMMV.

For flavor... really depends on the style (some are better with a little (or a lot of) age on them), and how much, if any, cleanup the yeast had left to do. Not all fermentations are created equal, thus not all conditioning timeframes are equal. If you open that first bottle @ two weeks, drinking it will tell you how conditioning is coming along. (If it tastes good, it is. If it doesn't, describe what you're tasting on the forum.) It also helps to taste your beer before bottling. Some off-flavors like Diacetyl (buttery) or Acetaldehyde (green apple) tell you that it's too soon.

Also, since this is an IPA, you probably don't want to wait too long to drink it. Unless you are taking great pains to exclude oxygen, hop flavor and aroma starts to transform via oxidation and vanish pretty quickly. The yeast in your bottles will use some of the O2, but they won't use all of it.

 

Most beers are ready to be bottled after two weeks, but the only way to be sure if you can proceed is to take a couple gravity readings a few days apart and compare these readings. If they don't match, or if they aren't within a few points of the expected final gravity, then you need to figure out why. For both scenarios, the likely answer is that fermentation is not yet complete, and if you bottle now and add priming sugar for carbonation, there will be too much sugar in each bottle and you'll have over-carbonated bottles, possibly to the point of exploding bottles.

Once you're determined that it's okay to bottle, rack to your bottling bucket with the prescribed amount of priming sugar for the number of gallons that you have confirmed is your actual liquid amount. (A 5-gallon recipe does not produce 5 gallons of beer unless you have added the right amount of water to allow for boil-off and trub volume.) Boil your priming sugar in a small amount of water to get it into solution, then put it into the bottom of your bucket, and then siphon your beer on top of it to mix it in. However, this sugar solution is heavier than your beer, and it will be trying to settle out of the beer during the bottling process, so a gentle stirring with an upward motion 2-3 times during bottling will help to keep it mixed into the beer. Otherwise, you'll have inconsistent carbonation between bottles - some with way too much, and some with no carbonation. Then leave your bottles at room temp (around 70) for two weeks, but you can try one after 10 days if your patience is exhausted. Then some quality time in the bottle under refrigeration (especially if it is a hoppy beer) is also very good for your beer for the flavor to settle down and mature.

Remember, you've got to pay attention to details -- this is science.

 

Two weeks and two weeks would be fine. I usually let my beers go 3 to 4 weeks in the ale pale. I let them carb for 2-4 weeks depending on the style.

 

I start drinking them within 7 to 10 days from bottling, especially IPA. That may be considered soon for some, but I like to see how it changes over time.

 

I've been brewing since about October and made several IPA's and pale ales. I've found that 2 weeks in primary, then on to bottling bucket and bottling, two weeks in bottles, and they are ready to drink (in terms of carbonation). I've found that the flavor tends to continue to evolve and they taste their best at 3-4 weeks from bottling. It's all personal preference of course but you can't go wrong with at least 2 weeks is what the general consensus seems to be

 

I have noticed that my bottled IPAs reach their peak of flavor after 4-5 weeks in the bottle.

Cheers!

 

Brewed my first batch on March 1 (IPA). OG 1.054 Fermentation started to slow on March 4, so I dry hopped. On March 15, I bottled. FG 1.008. Checked today, March 19, and my bottled hissed nicely as I opened it. Smell is amazing. Carbonation seems pretty good. Nice head and some decent lacing. A little bit of an off-flavor in the finish. It is pretty bitter and dry, but there is almost an earthy flavor. Not sure if this will change over time, or if that is just what the beer is going to taste like.

Question: I am going to a family party on March 21, and I want to know if this is too early to show off my first home brew and start cracking bottles?

As a side note, thanks to all the help from this forum! My first batch came out way better than I expected. This beer reminds me of Founders all day IPA. I'm going to brew this a few times this summer, tweaking the recipe a little bit each time.

 

The IPAs that I've brewed and bottled have all been a little 'rough' after the carbonation period, and each improved greatly after about 2-3 weeks additional time in the bottle. But it's going to have to be your choice if the beer is worthy of being showed-off to your family.