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How long can I leave a brew before bottling


Tonny's Brewing

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No problems with 15 days.

 

My beer is left in the FV for a minimum of 14 days.

 

I usually leave an ale in the FV for 14 days or more, and lagers 3 - 4 weeks.

Sometimes I'll bottle an ale a little sooner, but 10 days at the very least; and usually don't even bother doing a second SG reading until at least day 8, or later.

The only real issue is making sure the temp remains stable and within the optimal range, other than that you can leave your brew for a few weeks without any issues.

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I recently joined the fortnighters club, after years of bottling after consecutive sg readings, I now leave it in the fv for 14 days. I find the brew is much clearer and so far not had any probs with the taste. A mate of mine who is a commercial traveller, has left brews in fv for up to a month and come home and bottled, never had a problem. Just make sure the FV is airtight and temperature is pretty well controlled to a consistent level.

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Yep, I get all 'CBF' quite a lot of the time and mine can stay in for weeks and weeks. After the initial fermentation is complete all of your flavour precursors are pretty much set in stone, so temp is far less important after 4-5 days. If I've got a good rotation going, mine only get temperature control for the first week then get left to the elements. It is no different to storing your bottles in inconsistent temps at this point.

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  • 2 weeks later...

G'day all

I started my lager on the 2/10/2014 and its now the 15/10/2014.

will my brew be harmed for leaving it longer then the suggested week?

(if not how long can I leave it)

it has been on 18-20degrees for the whole time in a dark cupboard with very little light.

just need to know as I have heard mix opinions .

cheers

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Hi JJBB.

G'day all

I started my lager on the 2/10/2014 and its now the 15/10/2014.

will my brew be harmed for leaving it longer then the suggested week?

(if not how long can I leave it)

it has been on 18-20degrees for the whole time in a dark cupboard with very little light.

just need to know as I have heard mix opinions .

cheers

Two weeks in the primary fermenter is actually ideal & what you should aim to follow each time you brew.

An ale brew will often take 5-7 days to fully ferment the wort' date=' the extra week allows the yeast to clean up after itself, & clear your beer as a result.

 

Cheers & good luck with your future brewing. [img']wink[/img]

 

Anthony.

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G'day all

I started my lager on the 2/10/2014 and its now the 15/10/2014.

will my brew be harmed for leaving it longer then the suggested week?

(if not how long can I leave it)

it has been on 18-20degrees for the whole time in a dark cupboard with very little light.

just need to know as I have heard mix opinions .

cheers

 

The question is Jimmy John, was it a true lager, or just labelled a lager?

The answer is in the yeast you used.

If you were using a true lager yeast and following the instructions, then I doubt you'd have made your brew at 18-20c, as that's more ale territory.

 

I'm assuming you're using Coopers products, so check this against the info on the pack to let you know what sort of yeast you used (if unsure).

https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/7290/

 

Either way, as others will tell you, typically 2 or even 3 weeks is fine for an ale, and maybe 4 weeks or so for a lager; though of course as the weather gets warmer it can be a PITA to keep a lager at the optimal temp range for that length of time (typically 12 - 15c).

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g'day

cheers guys but I didn't follow the instructions. I pretty much mixed it all up and put it in a dark cupboard and my air-con has been set at 18degrees the whole time . I don't have A Thermometer as it cracked up and peeled off, but will buy one next time . would it still be drink-able after a 3week bottle or do you suggest starting again . (being in-mind that I don't care how horrible it taste, just don't wanna make myself or any1 eles sick)

 

cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

will my brew be harmed for leaving it longer then the suggested week?

cheers

at least from my experiences' date=' with lagers usually 1 week isn't long enough to drop your SG down to the recommended 1.010. I've found that my lagers have only hit this after 3 weeks at 16-18 degrees.

would it still be drink-able after a 3week bottle or do you suggest starting again

+1 to what Hairy said. I was recently overseas for >1 month (coincidentally for Oktoberfest) and decided to put 2 batches of Euro Lager on - so as to not waste valuable brewing time! These were sitting in the primary FV for 5 weeks and then bottled, and so far, there have been no issues.

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ur temp is too low thats why

 

16-18 for a Lager? That's actually too high. My lagers go at 10C.

 

+1 for P1. Though we may be at cross purposes. A few degrees in Celcius won't make a huge difference, but unless I have a good reason to change, I've now settled on 11C for lagers.

 

Just about any "generalist" ale yeast worth its nucleic acids will happily ferment cleanly between 16 and 18C. If however you are talking Kelvin or Degrees Fahrenheit, meh, I'm very happy to agree with you.

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ur temp is too low thats why

 

16-18 for a Lager? That's actually too high. My lagers go at 10C.

 

Yeah' date=' it's definitely too high for a proper lager strain yeast, but it's the best I can do in winter without proper temp control [img']crying[/img].

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G'day meh (I'm a poet and didn't know it)

 

Of course, I have no idea of what you enjoy in the flavour profile of your beers. And many here (eg. Hairy and Ben10) really enjoy a saison now and then and enhance those characteristics by brewing somewhere around 26C with a specialist yeast.

 

For myself, however, I mostly prefer to tone down the phenols and esters to get a "cleaner" tasting beer, and enhance the flavour by bringing forward the hops in my ales.

 

If you haven't done it recently, perhaps one day you might like to experiment with an 18C fermented ale.

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Just to throw a spanner in the works; 16-18c is exactly the right temp if using a lager and aiming for a steam beer, otherwise known as California Common.

You'll get some esters, and it will be somewhere between an ale and a lager, but that's what steam beer is.

 

I'd still keep it in the FV for at least 2 - 3 weeks though, and being a lager hygiene and temp control will make the difference between something worth drinking, and something you'd clean the drains with.

My experience with limited temp control has taught me to make my beer to the season, so no more lager for me until it really cools down, and even then, it can be easier to warm up a beer in the cool than to cool down a beer when it gets really hot.

 

I still don't have a brew fridge and am restricted to using a water bath, but perhaps things will change if/when I can get a brew fridge.

In the meantime, most of my beers have been pretty good, and though some have been poured down the sink, I've only had one really bad batch so far, just the odd bottle that wasn't quite right other than that.

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My experience with limited temp control has taught me to make my beer to the season' date=' so no more lager for me until it really cools down, and even then, it can be easier to warm up a beer in the cool than to cool down a beer when it gets really hot.[/quote']

+1

 

I've only got limited brewing experience, but I've stopped with the lagers as of a couple of weeks ago and moved onto ales for the moment, and maybe saisons once summer rolls around. Sydney has been way too hot this week to brew anything else cool

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  • 4 months later...

hi guys

 

great info on this thread

 

I've goat a pale ale brewing in primary will be a week tomorrow . I've boil 25g amarilo and galaxy and on around day 4i dry hoped another 25g. the new smelt amazing , citrusy etc etc , i wen to do a hydrometer reading tonight and the brew docent seem to smell as good ? is that normal , i might be "trippin" a tad.i figured maybe the dry hop has sunk down to the bottom of the brew ence the smell isn't as good ( still smells good but not as good as a few days ago )

 

any thoughts , tips ideas appreciated

 

cheers

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