Time in FV before bottling

[Cheap Drunk]

Hi all, I've seen plenty of recommendations to leave a brew in the FV for a couple of weeks or more, to get a clearer beer and allow the yeast to clean up off flavours. It occurs to me now that this advice might be from people who are kegging, as I can see how that would help. But if you're bottling, it's going to be sitting in the bottle for a couple of weeks at least, so surely the yeast can do their work still? And the sediment will continue to drop to the bottom as well. Am I right or is there some other reasons to leave it in the FV longer?

Also, does kegging give you a slightly lower ABV compared to bottling, due to the reduced time for secondary fermentation?

 

[Frothy Boi]

Kegging will give you a slightly lower ABV because you are not adding extra fermentables to prime your brew. Someone else might inform you why not to bottle before you reach a stable FG, I moved to kegging before I had any exploding bottles.

 

[Cheap Drunk]

Kegging will give you a slightly lower ABV because you are not adding extra fermentables to prime your brew. Someone else might inform you why not to bottle before you reach a stable FG, I moved to kegging before I had any exploding bottles.

Thanks, I didn't realise no extra fermentables were added for kegging, which is why I couldn't figure out what happens to those fermentables. That's cleared that up. But I'm not talking about bottling before a stable FG, which often happens within a week. So many people say to leave it well beyond that point and I don't know why. Unless they are giving advice which is for kegging.

 

[Frothy Boi]

there's a few more products of fermentation than alcohol and co2, and some of them contribute to off flavours in beer. with a bit of extra time the yeast can continue to convert these by products. 2 or 3 weeks is about what I give. When I used to bottle it was an extra 4 - 6 weeks after bottling till my beers were at their peak.

 

[Cheap Drunk]

there's a few more products of fermentation than alcohol and co2, and some of them contribute to off flavours in beer. with a bit of extra time the yeast can continue to convert these by products. 2 or 3 weeks is about what I give. When I used to bottle it was an extra 4 - 6 weeks after bottling till my beers were at their peak.

Do you mean that you left it in the FV for 2-3 weeks when bottling, and still do the same for kegging? And do you think there is any difference in the rate at which the yeast would clean up the byproducts in the FV compared to in the bottle? I can't see why, and sometimes I'd just like to get it bottled as I only have one FV. Then I can get the next brew started.

 

[philrob]

If you have sufficient nutrient in your wort, aerate it properly, and pitch a decent amount of yeast, your ales should be done within 4 to 5 days. Lagers will take a little longer, but there is absolutely no reason to leave your beer longer than 2 weeks in the fermenter. You will start to get yeast autolysis, and although it may be slow, it will happen and begin to reduce the quality of your beer.
There's a very good reason why commercial brewers don't leave it for longer (other than for some specialty beers), and not just economic reasons.
Do everything right and you do not need to leave it longer than 2 weeks.
By the way, my last brew before the current one is presently lagering. It is a BoPils, and was fermented at 10ºC for 2 weeks. When I racked it for lagering at 2 weeks, it had gone from 1.050 to 1.006 and the sample tasted great. Will be a fantastic Christmas beer. However, I had grown the equivalent of about 5 or so smakpaks of yeast, and aerated it with pure oxygen before pitching.

 

[Cheap Drunk]

If you have sufficient nutrient in your wort, aerate it properly, and pitch a decent amount of yeast, your ales should be done within 4 to 5 days. Lagers will take a little longer, but there is absolutely no reason to leave your beer longer than 2 weeks in the fermenter. You will start to get yeast autolysis, and although it may be slow, it will happen and begin to reduce the quality of your beer.
There's a very good reason why commercial brewers don't leave it for longer (other than for some specialty beers), and not just economic reasons.
Do everything right and you do not need to leave it longer than 2 weeks.
By the way, my last brew before the current one is presently lagering. It is a BoPils, and was fermented at 10ºC for 2 weeks. When I racked it for lagering at 2 weeks, it had gone from 1.050 to 1.006 and the sample tasted great. Will be a fantastic Christmas beer. However, I had grown the equivalent of about 5 or so smakpaks of yeast, and aerated it with pure oxygen before pitching.

Cheers mate. And that beer sounds pretty good, probably the kind to warm you up on a cold winters night. Or for some Christmas cheer. My last one got infected, looked exactly like the lacto infection photos I've seen. Tastes funny too (I'm having one now lol).
I'm still unsure though if there really is any benefit to leaving it in the FV after stable FG is reached. I bottled today after 8 days (no infection thank goodness) and will leave it a couple of weeks and see how she goes.

 

[Rocker1986]

I think there's a benefit to leaving it in the FV for maybe 2-3 days after FG is reached but that's all. It doesn't need any longer and there is no benefit to leaving it any longer than that. I don't really agree with these rigid timeframes some guys use, you know the "all my batches sit in the FV for 3 weeks before bottling" ****. What a waste of time, it's most likely fermented in 7 days or less, they've just wasted two weeks that could have been used to carbonate it in the bottles.

Now I'm gonna contradict myself a little here because I do leave them longer than that due to cold crashing the beer. I do this about 2-3 days after FG is reached but to keep things simple I leave the beer in the FV rather than transferring it to another one. This hasn't caused any problems, and I suspect the cold temperature drastically slows down any potential yeast autolysis. After that week or so at 0 degrees it goes into a keg. Point being, it still only remains at or just above fermentation temp for the same period, i.e. 2-3 days after FG.

 

[mongey]

I’m with rocker. I’ll leave mine 2 weeks but that’s including cold crashing.

Visually I’d say they are all done fermenting 5 days.i leave then a couple more days and test at 7 or 8 and then again at 9. Then I cold crash till the next weeekend for bottling. Usually 4 or 5 days.

Of course some high OG beers are slower. And the odd one lags a bit and needs longer. But if it’s done it’s done.

 

[Cheap Drunk]

Yeah thanks for the replies fellas. Obviously that's what I was hoping to hear because the faster you can make beer the better.

 

[mongey]

Yeah thanks for the replies fellas. Obviously that's what I was hoping to hear because the faster you can make beer the better.

But the one caveat is make sure it’s done. If it’s not you’ll get bombs.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yep. I usually work on the idea of not rushing it but at the same time not unnecessarily wasting time either.

 

[NegimaTorikawa]

I bottle and usually cold crash at day 10 and bottle around day 13/14.

Most of my beers are done fermenting around day 7 which is when I dry hop for 3 days before cold crashing to drop everything out of suspension before I bulk prime and bottle.

 

[Lionman]

If your kegging, keg it when it tastes good.

Last few batches I have pressure fermented in a 50L kegmenter. They where transferred to the serving keg at 5-7 days. Any dry hops were added at the beginning which helps turn the beer around a bit faster too.

If bottling you could do the same as long as you are confident that it has reached terminal gravity and it tastes good.

 

[Cheap Drunk]

I have a question slightly related to this. I went to bottle a brew after 8 days. It looked like fermentation had been finished for several days but when I looked closely I saw that bubbles were continuing to rise. Not rapidly but one every 10 seconds or so. It was a toucan with 1kg of brewing sugar and both yeasts. Fermentation had been pretty rapid and the temp around 22. Only ever took one gravity reading and that was 1.012 on bottling day. I figured close enough.
So my question is do bubbles continue to rise even after it's fully fermented?

 

[Rocker1986]

They can. It's just residual CO2 coming out of solution.