Resting after Fermentation

I find about 2 weeks gives me a nice CLEAR beer, but I use a keg system, not bottles.

I have actually had beer after 1 week of brewing......mixing, fermenting and kegging. It's been OK, but I find the longer I leave it the nicer it is. You need to leave bottles for 2-3 weeks to carbonate anyway, which is why the keg system is so good, 2 days gassing kegs with CO2 versus 2 -3 weeks priming bottles with sugar.

If you can afford it, lash out and get a keg system. It saves so much mucking around cleaning 80 or so bottles, and then storing them for weeks. My keg system cost me $400 (including the shitty old fridge)

Barnesy has missed what your asking!!

You should wait 24 hours once the bubbling has stopped before bottling.

Russ

Um...nope. You should take a hydrometer reading for a couple consecutive days after fermentation has settled down. If the reading doesn't drop, it's okay to bottle.

After you've been brewing for a while, you'll come to know by the look of things when it's okay to bottle, but when you're just starting out, use a hydrometer.

Brina

Good advice, but not everybody has a hydrometer, especially on their first batch. My own personal rule of thumb is, wait till the fermentation stops bubbling, then wait 3 more days, then bottle. You'll probably be fine if you use this rule of thumb.

If you do have a hydrometer, then it is a good idea to use it as Brina suggested. Look for a reading lower than 1.020 for a few days in a row. If the reading doesn't drop at all, fermentation is complete. If the reading is much higher than 1.020, then the fermentation has gotten "stuck", and you'll need to add some yeast nutrients, yeast energizer, and/or a tougher strain of yeast to get it where it needs to be. This has happened to me a few times... usually it happens with high-alcohol brews, when the yeast gets "tired" and can't finish for you, and you need to kick it in the rear end to keep on going. But anyway..... hope this helped.

-- Dave "Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" -- Genesis, 1973-ish

I agree with the three day rule. Much sooner than that you risk exploding bottles, much more than that the beer will turn out undercarbonated. In a pinch you can re pitch with fresh yeast at the time of priming if rested for more than around five days at optimal temperature.

If you've transferred it to a secondary, I've had beer in the fermenter for over a year before bottling...no problems.

------------->Denny

Well, I didn't say there's be yeast alive after a year! ;) When I do that, it's for a big beer like a barleywine that needs a lot of aging. Besides the time it's in secondary, the yeast is also stressed after a high gravity fermentation, so I add a packet of dry yeast to the bottling bucket along with my priming solution. With normal gravity beers in secondary for only a couple months that isn't necessary, but if you keep your beer in the fermenter a really long time, extra yeast at bottling couldn't hurt.

-------------->Denny

I have left it sitting around for a few months without any trouble. The yeast goes dormant, but the priming malt gets it going again.

Ray Drouillard

without

bottling.

fermenting

Australia.

Hi all I am getting back into brewing and now working on putting together a Kegerator with 4 taps 3 standard and one for guness style stout and live in tampa florida