Delaying Bottling - How Long Is Safe
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Aleosaurus cervisiae
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My two cents: I once left my beer in the fermenter for four weeks and got autolysis. Yuck. Never again. Two weeks and the beer gets into the bottles.
Yob
Hop to it
10ml of compact slurry is alot, generally I get a repitch rate of about 70ml 'rinsed' compact slurry, a week difference in viability is about 10 ml compact slurry... quite alot really and I have noticed a considerable difference in my brews since getting it right..
Mr Malty is a great resource.. he tells me 11% viability over a week... really a significant amount of repitch rate..
:icon_cheers:
HoppingMad
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No scientific mumbo-jumbo just practical experience using standard ale yeasts (US-05, S-04 & Danstar Nottingham) kept at room temp:
- On yeast a week - no probs but with some yeasts a longer rest on cake is needed to smooth the beer out (called conditioning).
- On yeast 2 weeks - perfect in my opinion for ale yeasts (one week ferment, one week conditioning).
- On yeast 3 weeks - OK no issues.
- On yeast 4 weeks - Flavours in beer start to change more distinctly, slight woody and nutty characters start to develop. This could be more pronounced if your fermenter is in a warm area above 20oC.
- On yeast 5-7 weeks - Pronounced Autolysis off flavours occur. Rubbery, Solventy, Medicinal, Band-aid like.
- On yeast 8 weeks - Tip it, horrifically bad.
Disclaimer - That said Jamil (Author of Brewing Classic Styles) will keep his beer on yeast for long periods of time (up to 2 months) according to some reading I've done. How does he do this? He has his fermented beer in a refridgerator at around 2-4oC. I have kept my fermented beers longer this way without autolysis prior to bottling, but at room temp or with high heat in your brewspace chances are your beer will go downhill a lot quicker. I don't tend to go 8 weeks like he has but have gone 6 weeks in a fridge with no autolysis detected.
In some styles such as darker beers, you might like a woody, nutty flavour - so a longer time on the yeast might be something to experiment with- but you are dancing with the devil in terms of whether you ruin your batch. Many I've spoken to who report autolysis in their beer say to me that the beer continues to degrade so once you taste a solventy character, you should drink the rest of the beer sooner rather than later.
So you are aware commercial brewers like Dave Edney (ex-James Squire/Portland Hotel Headbrewer and now at Mountain Goat) who I heard speak on the subject two years ago recommends you 'rack' the beer off the yeastcake 'as soon as possible' as each day in his opinion changes the flavour of the beer and introduces characters that are undesireable in a commercial example. Going by what he is suggesting, he would ferment a beer over 5-7 days and then condition just 2-3 days. Bear in mind that for commercial breweries they are driven by getting beer out to market as soon as possible though.
Hopper.
- On yeast a week - no probs but with some yeasts a longer rest on cake is needed to smooth the beer out (called conditioning).
- On yeast 2 weeks - perfect in my opinion for ale yeasts (one week ferment, one week conditioning).
- On yeast 3 weeks - OK no issues.
- On yeast 4 weeks - Flavours in beer start to change more distinctly, slight woody and nutty characters start to develop. This could be more pronounced if your fermenter is in a warm area above 20oC.
- On yeast 5-7 weeks - Pronounced Autolysis off flavours occur. Rubbery, Solventy, Medicinal, Band-aid like.
- On yeast 8 weeks - Tip it, horrifically bad.
Disclaimer - That said Jamil (Author of Brewing Classic Styles) will keep his beer on yeast for long periods of time (up to 2 months) according to some reading I've done. How does he do this? He has his fermented beer in a refridgerator at around 2-4oC. I have kept my fermented beers longer this way without autolysis prior to bottling, but at room temp or with high heat in your brewspace chances are your beer will go downhill a lot quicker. I don't tend to go 8 weeks like he has but have gone 6 weeks in a fridge with no autolysis detected.
In some styles such as darker beers, you might like a woody, nutty flavour - so a longer time on the yeast might be something to experiment with- but you are dancing with the devil in terms of whether you ruin your batch. Many I've spoken to who report autolysis in their beer say to me that the beer continues to degrade so once you taste a solventy character, you should drink the rest of the beer sooner rather than later.
So you are aware commercial brewers like Dave Edney (ex-James Squire/Portland Hotel Headbrewer and now at Mountain Goat) who I heard speak on the subject two years ago recommends you 'rack' the beer off the yeastcake 'as soon as possible' as each day in his opinion changes the flavour of the beer and introduces characters that are undesireable in a commercial example. Going by what he is suggesting, he would ferment a beer over 5-7 days and then condition just 2-3 days. Bear in mind that for commercial breweries they are driven by getting beer out to market as soon as possible though.
Hopper.
