I have made wine before, but I just stated brewing one-gallon batches of beer. I have a bazillion questions, but I’ll start with this: Should beer be racked during the 2-week fermentation stage? I made a 1-gallon batch of Caribou Slobber and it is a little more bitter than I expected. Could it be that too much trub got into the bottles?
Yeast is bitter. Leave the bottles in the frig for a few days before drinking. The yeast settle to the bottom, Pour slowly into a glass and leave the yeast behind
Bitterness will also fade with aging. Wait about a month and the bitterness will probably be dead on. Also remember that the beer is green and will benefit from some aging.
During fermentation you should be doing nothing but watching the airlock bubble. After 1 week, or 2 weeks, your beer should be through fermenting. Use a hydrometer to check for changes in gravity. I usually let mine work off for about 2 weeks, it’s done sooner but I may not be able to rack it to a secondary or bottle or keg.
There’s a rule, which I don’t follow anymore but it’s still a good one.
One week in primary
Two weeks in secondary
Three weeks in the bottle
I quit using the secondary, I just wasn’t seeing the benefit in my beers.
I disagree, I think this is a bad rule in general. In general it’s better to let your beer sit in primary for three weeks, than it is to rack after one. You shouldn’t rack your beer until primary is done. The only true way to tell this is by a steady gravity reading over a couple of days. Even then, there can be benefit from leaving your beer on the yeast longer. It gives them time to clean up some off flavors that could have cropped up.
If your sanitation is good, but you don’t have the knack of leaving trub behind during racking, then a secondary (bright tank) can be useful.
[quote=“WiVikesFan”][quote=“Norman”]
There’s a rule, which I don’t follow anymore but it’s still a good one.
One week in primary
Two weeks in secondary
Three weeks in the bottle
[/quote]
I disagree, I think this is a bad rule in general. In general it’s better to let your beer sit in primary for three weeks, than it is to rack after one. You shouldn’t rack your beer until primary is done. The only true way to tell this is by a steady gravity reading over a couple of days. Even then, there can be benefit from leaving your beer on the yeast longer. It gives them time to clean up some off flavors that could have cropped up.
If your sanitation is good, but you don’t have the knack of leaving trub behind during racking, then a secondary (bright tank) can be useful.[/quote]
+1 I like the simplicity but would suggest that you flip it.
Three weeks in the primary
Two weeks in the secondary
Try a bottle each week after bottling.
But to each person their own.
Cheers
The only times I’ve had fermentation done in a week was when I first started brewing, conventional wisdom was to pitch yeast @ 80°
Let it sit three weeks in primary. Don’t open it until then to check gravity. If done bottle it. When you do bottle it get a second carboy and put your priming sugar in their first all sanitized of course. Rack carefully and off the bottom tilt at end avoid the trub! Wait a couple of weeks and drink. Maybe a week if a lower ABV beer probably carbonated by then.
A hydrometer is a great purchase. I felt like before I bought one I was just guessing. It gave me a lot more control and understanding about what was going on.
Just fyi, you’ll need a thief or some sterile way to draw beer off to test, and also a graduated cylinder to hold the hydrometer while it floats for you to read the reading.
I’ve never needed to leave a beer in primary for 3 weeks. 2 weeks and it’s done. I don’t secondary anymore, so I usually keg and let sit for a week or two, essentially using it as a secondary then chilling and carbing.
Knowing how to use a hydrometer takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process. If you don’t have one, get one and be sure to grab a test jar while you’re at it.
Thanks for all the great information!
Hydrometers are wonderful devices, but they have a very short lifespan. Mine like to creep from the back of my work area to the edge and jump to their death.
Get two and plan to replace the dead ones frequently. Or, get an assistant to guard them.
[quote=“Old_Dawg”]Hydrometers are wonderful devices, but they have a very short lifespan. Mine like to creep from the back of my work area to the edge and jump to their death.
Get two and plan to replace the dead ones frequently. Or, get an assistant to guard them.[/quote]
+1, temperamental little buggers. Particularly for the clumsily born.
How about rinsing them off after use and placing them back into their plastic container after use? See… problem solved on the hydrometer suicide. 
I find the longer my brew session (and therefore the more brews in the belly) the more the hydrometer becomes an endangered species…
Making a 1 gallon beer, I would not want to loose any beer because of racking. At 1 gallon, they yeast have probably done their job in 2-3 days. Bottling could happen by day 10.
+1 I still use my first, it’s about 14 yrs old.
I’m on my third test jar, though.
This was the case with my Irish Red 1 gal, but it was at about 70 deg, maybe even 72 deg. Done in about 3 days. The Sierra Madre 1 gal has been gurgling in primary for a week now at 64 deg, albeit now once every 5 minutes, still foamy though, and little yeasty acrobats in there. And the Black IPA took two days just to really start going, at 64 deg. I imagine that one will take longer. I hope they all turn out OK, I like the idea of variety in smaller quantity.
Does the beer get more bitter just by having yeast in the bottom of the bottle, or does it only get more bitter if you drink the yeast? In other words, when the beer is decanted from the yeast, is it just as good as if there were no yeast in the bottom of the bottle to start with?
THANKS
