How long fermenter

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. I wouldn't call 72F hot. It is a standard fermentation temp, a little high but certainly not hot. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta.

After the yeast have flocculated and cleaned up any of the byproducts created during fermentation they begin to break down. The yeast cells die and this creates unwanted flavours in the beer. This process is called yeast autolysis. Yeast autolysis creates a kind of marmite or meaty flavour in the beer. In a commercial brewery, the fermentation vessels are much bigger, there is a bigger weight and pressure on the yeast and cells break down quicker. This is why commercial breweries are quick to remove yeast from the beer after the conditioning is complete.

On a home brew scale, there is not so much pressure or heat generated by fermentation to contend with so autolysis happens at a slower rate. If you do intend to age a beer for a couple of months I would recommend moving the beer to a secondary vessel.

High ABV beers for example like Imperial stouts are suited to bulk aging in a fermenter. Moving it off the bulk of the yeast after weeks would be my recommendation and then leave it for as long as you like in a secondary vessel, several months will be fine.

If you are brewing a straightforward, regular ABV beer though how long is too long? Personally, I have left a beer in primary for around 5 — 6 weeks without noticing any off flavours. I will stick to my 3 weeks as standard operating procedure. If the occasion does arise though there is room for maneuver.

I see you talk about big breweries having more pressure acting over the cells would logically break them down earlier. Think of 9 lt for example.

And, would you consider temperature as a critical factor for such time? I quite often brew litre batches and have occasionally left them in primary for a month before. Many thanks for the article — it has reassured me a lot. I typically brew and then 2 weeks later rack the beer as this fits in with my schedule without too many issues! However I brewed on 8th September without giving thought to an upcoming week away.

Beer recipe, but then life gets busy. You forget you brewed a batch and then one night you're sitting there and you realize that your beer has been sitting there for 4 weeks! Things come up and bottling your homebrew is just not a priority at the moment. A common question we get is from people that have left their beer for to long and are thinking about dumping it. Before you ever dump your beer always try it. You may think something is bad but when you taste it you could be surprised.

It could be totally fine, or if you did get some type of infection it could be a good one that turns your beer into a nice sour! For brewing with Mr. Beer, we always recommend that you bottle your beer no later than 24 days in the fermenter.

New brewers are typically excited to try their beer, which is why our ale kit directions all say to ferment the beer one week in the primary and one week in the secondary or two weeks if only using single fermentation.

The directions also suggest weeks of bottle conditioning before drinking. The directions listed here are along the same timeline, but at Midwest, most of the brewers here would agree that it is a better practice to perform a long secondary fermentation as opposed to a long time conditioning in the bottle.

This makes for a more consistent batch of beer, as it is all aging together at the same time. Here are some general fermentaion time suggestions by style. For a style like a Cream Ale, Honey Kolsch, or any of our Light Ales, we would recommend one week in primary, and weeks in secondary.

The lighter flavor of these beers allows the beer to mature sooner because you are not waiting for the alcohol bitterness to subside, or for the beer to mellow out. You are basically just waiting for the beer to clear to your liking. So, once it is clear enough for you, feel free to bottle. For styles such as American Amber Ale or German Altbier , we recommend 1 week in the primary and weeks in the secondary. As a beer gets darker in color it becomes more important to let the beer sit longer in the fermenter.

The reason is due to the darker grains.