Time for primary only fermentation

[carrisr]

OK, after some input from you guys, listening to several Brew Strong podcasts, and even back articles from BYO it seems there is a growing opinion that secondaries are not really needed unless you want to do something like add fruit. Many people even recommend dry hopping in the primary after the main ferment has run.

I was just listening to another Brew Strong, and Jamil says for most ales he just goes about 10 days (or less) in the primary and then to bottles or keg. He says you just need to let the ferment run and then a few days to let the yeast settle.

On lots of other brewing forums the "experts" are saying leave them in the primary for at least 3-4 weeks. They say the extra time makes for smoother beers due to lots of less than scientific mumbo jumbo.

I think I'm more inclined to trust Jamil's opinion, but I was curious as to what most of you are doing?

[tompb]

Once the bubbling stops or at least slows to once every few minutes fermentation is done. Give it a couple days after that and you should be ok. If you wait another week or so the beer will clear up and darken a bit. You can bottle after the fermentation or wait for a bit of clearing. There will be less sludge in the bottles if you wait. If you're concerned about bottle bombs go for the extra time. After a couple batches you will get to know the routine.

[TappedOut]

Unless you get carried away (months at warm temps), extra time in primary doesn't really hurt anything, unless the only thing you have to drink in the meantime is Busch Light. The way to be sure it's done is to take a hydrometer reading, but I just typically let it go for a couple of weeks.

My guess is that the "smoother beer" is just about giving it time to mellow out a bit. Whether in primary or afterwards probably doesn't matter. It's just that having the beer carbonated and ready to go makes it irrestible. I have no science to back this up, so take it for what it's worth.

Personally, I'd give it a few extra days for settling, so, as the other Tom said, you'll have less sludge in the bottom.

My first batch, after reading Papazian talking about the importance of getting the beer off the yeast to avoid off-flavors, I rushed it, and bottled it before it was done. Fortunately I used plastic 2-liter soda bottles, so I could release the pressure, but the lesson was that it's definitely better to give it a couple of days extra rather than a couple of days too few.

[tony b]

I had always read that it was a good idea to get the beer off the dead yeast. Plus the added benefit of a second round of settling time to clear up the beer before bottling.

In my case it also helps because I have 2 secondary carboys (5 gals), so I can brew again in my 6 gal primary sooner.

[carrisr]

I decided to go ahead and bottle my Irish Red right from the primary today. It had 2 weeks in there, was as dark as it's going to get, and the FG was 1.011. So we'll see in about 2 weeks how it turns out. My yield ended up pretty low as I was kind of sloppy transferring and setting up to bottle. I also did not return the gravity samples when I took those. I definitely need to get a spectrometer as soon as I can afford it. I ended up with 18 bottles from the 2 gallon batch. That's fine for me though, as I've got an IPA that I'll bottle next weekend and I'm going to start an apricot wheat too.

[tony b]

Sounds like someone has jumped into the deep end of the pool!

Brew on, baby!