Hey everyone, I made two one gallon batches the last few weeks. Both of them bubbled fast for the first 24 hours, then basically still for the rest of the two weeks. Both of them I had to put off bottling due to time constraints for a few days. With both that they started bubbling again at day 15. Is that autolysis beginning? Hope I didn’t wait too long but seems like some people wait plenty long until bottling. One I ended up bottling at day 20, the other at day 16.
Wish I had more details in the yeast, but they were both all-grain kits from Brooklyn Beer Shop so they didn’t have the type of yeast on it, just their brand label.
Autolysis takes many months. I’ve bottled after 2 months or more with no issues. If I had to guess, maybe you had a small change in temperature that led to some CO2 coming out of solution. I wouldn’t sweat it, you’re fine.
My beers are done, typically, and racked within 7 days when pitched with healthy yeast, especially when harvested from a portion of slurry on back to back repitches.
Interesting, thanks for the advice on fermentation timelines. I’m still pretty new so I’m stuck on prescribed timelines…haven’t veered from the two weeks yet but sounds like I could move to a week of fermentation, then bottle without worry. It does seem like there’s so much inactivity it’s a wasting time. I do one gallons so I guess there’s not a huge risk trying it out anyway, eh? When you bottle after ~7 days, do you condition for 2-3 weeks still or longer?
Just ensure you’re at terminal gravity (or x% above terminal if you spund). It could be 3 days or 10 days or 20 days. It’s up the the yeast to tell you when it’s done.
Bottle conditioning is simply waiting on the residual yeast to referment in the bottle to capture the CO2 to carbonate the beer for you, then allow it to clear if that matters to you. That could be one week, two weeks, three weeks… Lots of variables involved such as storage temp, yeast strain, avail sugars, etc.
Try one after a week if it needs more time let it take more time. It probably will. Then try one in another week. …and on and on until you are pleased with the results. You’ll figure out what you prefer. No hard and fast rule.
There’s a lot of science to brewing. …but there’s some art as well as pure f*ing black magic, too.
I also brewed on Sunday morning. Bohemian Pilsner at 1.046 OG.
Only one 34/70 packet added directly to primary after cooling to 65F.
Then dropped to 55F over next several hours.
Two 60 second O2 blasts at pitch and at 4 hours.
I had full primary activity at 24 hours.
Still active at this time.
I also brewed on Sunday morning. Bohemian Pilsner at 1.046 OG.
Only one 34/70 packet added directly to primary after cooling to 65F.
Then dropped to 55F over next several hours.
Two 60 second O2 blasts at pitch and at 4 hours.
I had full primary activity at 24 hours.
Still active at this time.
Brewing small batches, I have just relied on patience to get through my 3 week minimum primary fermentation time. It doesn’t make sense to waste beer collecting samples, so I just wait it out. After 3 weeks, I bottle. Then I wait at least another week after bottling to sample for carbonation, clarity and taste. When it’s ready, so am I.