Fermentation time and method

[Doctormcbrewdle]

I'd like to know, in general, how long is everyone keeping their beer in the vessel for and have you experimented with longer vs shorter times, taking off the yeast cake, cool and warm etc?

Whilst I've probably done a few hundred batches now the most I've effort I've gone to is cold crashimg after 10 or so days fermentation for ales, longer for lagers, leave it for 1 day and bottle. It settles out extremely well but am I missing out on maturation or anything else? Anything to make better beer

Discuss

 

[wereprawn]

To me, it depends on the yeast. When using something like Notto or MJ 42 in an easy drinking ale of 4-5% abv , for example, at around 18c the brew is finished fermenting in 3-4 days then another 4 days conditioning/dry hop, taste and if there are no " green beer" flavours, I'll crash for 2 days, keg and either let sit until there is room in the keg fridge or immediately put in the fridge to carb for 24hrs. They taste good at this stage but do improve with time.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Ferments often done in 4 days, 10 days in primary for me usually. Then transferred to keg and kept it room temp (Ales and Lagers) until it goes in the fridge. In my thinking the conditioning happens over time regardless. Only thing to avoid is putting it on tap too early but then again that can go well with some ales. From reading some brewers bragging about drinking beers in 5 days from grain to brain etc.
I like having more kegs now to allow for my beers to condition longer before they go on tap.