Terminal Specific Gravity or Time - When to Bottle?

[beer4myhorses]

The instructions in my recipe kit give an original and terminal specific gravity. At the beginning of my fermentation, I was right on the money for the original sp. gravity. Do I bottle when it reaches it's terminal specific gravity? Other reading I have done says to bottle after 14 days. I am trying to get an answer on waiting a certain number of days, or getting a certain specific gravity reading to tell me when it is the right time to bottle.

[siwelwerd]

The answer is "both", or "it depends" . You want to wait until it's hit terminal gravity, and then give it more time so the yeast has a chance to clean up after itself. Keep in mind that depending on a myriad of factors, your beer may stop at 1.014 even though the recipe claims 1.012 (or vice versa). So the short answer is wait until your gravity stabilizes (same reading for consecutive days), then give it a few more days. Mine usually stabilize within 2 weeks, then I give it another week. If you can't stand to wait 3 weeks, then you're not brewing often enough!

[BDawg]

+1 on everything siwelwerd said. Spot on, Drew.

[brewinhard]

I typically let average strength beers sit for 2 wks. before packaging. Conditioning is so important for a good final product. don't rush the delicious schwill!

[beer4myhorses]

What do you mean by conditioning? Is there something to look for...oh, yes, I will be patient after all of this TLC I have given the brew?

[brewinhard]

Conditioning is the period given to the beer after primary fermentation has completed (rise and fall of krausen). This period allows the yeast to clean up any off flavors they might have produced during the primary fermentation phase such as diacetyl (buttery flavor/aroma), acetaldehyde (green apple like) just to name a couple. It immensely improves the beer and gives the beer time to be cleaned up while remaining on the primary yeast cake. Typically 2 wks. is enough time for this before packaging unless it is a larger gravity beer which can benefit from maybe an extra week or so.

[beer4myhorses]

Thanks!