After working in bars, doing some repping for some amazing breweries and being an overall lover of craft beer I have started the hobby of home brewing.
I recently completed my first ever batch of beer, an all-grain 1 gallon Citra IPA (not racking to secondary). My question for all of you in in regards to my fermentation / dry-hopping schedule.
This is what I have mapped out after doing copious amounts of reading:
March 5 (DAY 0) - Brew Day - Yeast Pitched (US-05)
March 20 (DAY 15) - Add hops to primary for dry-hopping
March 25 (DAY 20) - Put in fridge to cold crash for approx. 24 hours
March 26 (3 WEEKS) - Bottling Day
April 9 (5 WEEKS) - Drinking Day!!!
At first when I saw the three weeks I thought it was in the fridge for 3 weeks… now I see that’s a one day difference between day 20 and 21.
I used to do 2 week primary, 2 week secondary, 1 week dry hop (second week of secondary) and then bottle. I stopped doing a secondary transfer, shortened to a three week primary, dry hop the third week and then bottle. Basically the exact same as you’ve got laid out, so that’s what works for me.
Hope it turns out, sounds like you’re on the right track! Welcome!
As long as your arbitrary schedule is long enough that the beer is done, you’re probably fine. Under normal conditions, Denny is probably right. It should be done way before that. We are assuming you will be measuring gravity to ensure it’s done. Especially important, for safety reasons, when bottle conditioning.
With a one gallon batch, I assume you pitched a goodly amount of yeast. If so, your beer will be done well in advance of your proposed schedule. Cheers.
The cold crash time seems a bit short to me. It depends on what you are trying to achieve with the cold crash. That will settle out the yeast, but not necessarily the chill haze.
I used half a pack of US-05. Did not rehydrate. Aerated by shaking carboy for a few mins.
I was planning on taking my final gravity reading when I open the carboy to dry hop. When you say the beer should be done WAY before that, do you reckon I could leave it in the primary for two weeks and bottle condition for two weeks and that would be ample time?
I didn’t really think about it before but, since I’m making a smaller batch, does everything happen quicker? Everything being the fermentation time, clean-up time and conditioning.
I’m more interested in getting yeast and hop matter in suspension to settle, not looking for a crystal clear beer.
So, a lot of people say that when the beer hits terminal gravity (two gravity checks that are the same, and a few days apart) then all of the fermentation related clean up is done. That leaves dropping clear, dry hopping, and conditioning/carbonation.
It’s possible, maybe even probable that with a smaller batch it might finish quicker. But large commercial batches finish just as quick as 5 gallon batches, so… dunno if it’s totally size related.
I say pencil in your schedule for planning purposes. But be flexible and let the beer drive the real schedule.
FYI, I just had a 6 gallon batch of 10% abv imperial stout, fermented at the low end of suggested temp, it hit terminal gravity in 9 days. 2nd gravity reading was at day 9, so actually it was done when I took that 1st reading (day 6) I had penciled in 21 days. When the batch sitting next to it reaches terminal gravity, I will be cold crashing both of them. They will be in the keg and carbonated before my pencil schedule thought they would finish fermentation.
It depends on your fementation temperature, warmer means the yeast will work faster, too warm and the yeast will stress and cause off flavors in your beer. Too cold, the yeast will stop working, and go to sleep.
It will be done when the yeast calls it quits, that’s what he means.
I’ve had a 5 gallon batch done fermenting in 4 days.
I’ve had another 5 gallon batch done in 9 days.
That’s all because of the fermentation temperature.