Fermentation Methods

Author: Marshall Schott
I’m not the most patient person in the world. When I started brewing, it was commonplace to leave beer in primary for 3-5 days then rack to secondary and store it for 2-3 more weeks before packaging. It sucked, but I did it, mainly because everywhere I looked I found cautionary tales of batches gone bad as a direct result of one’s failure to “give it more time.” Warnings continue to abound about the great evil of impatience in this hobby.

As my obsession with brewing grew, I read, listened, and asked a bunch of questions. Through this, I began to learn the reasons for such extended fermentation times were likely a function of a few factors, namely shitty yeast, lacking pitch rates, and poor control of fermentation temperature. This led to informal experimentation where I eventually learned I could turn beers around in significantly less time by pitching an adequate amount of healthy yeast and properly controlling temps during fermentation, and the beers were as good as if not better than those I was making before.

What follows are the typical fermentation schedules I use for beers fermented with ale and hybrid yeast strains (for those fermented with traditional lager strains, check out my Quick Lager Methodpage). They’re not unique, I know plenty of folks who do the same thing, I’m just writing about it here to relieve my fingers from typing it out so often.

A couple assumptions:

– You’re using a good calculator and making adequately sized yeast starters. – You have some method of controlling fermentation temperatures (up and down) with relative precision. – You keg… if not, add 2-3 more weeks for bottle conditioning. – You’re actually interested in quicker turnaround times (if not, that’s cool, but this will bore you).

| ALE FERMENTATION SCHEDULE |
1. Chill wort to target fermentation temp (66°-68°F/19˚-20˚C)), place in temp controlled environment, attach insulated temp probe to side of fermentor, and pitch yeast starter.

2. After 2-5 days (OG dependent) of active fermentation, remove probe from side of fermentor so it measures ambient then bump regulator to 75°F/24˚C* (the Black Box makes this easy).

3. After 2-5 more days, once FG is stable and the sample is free of off-flavors, cold crash the beer to 30-32°F/0˚C.

4. 12-24 hours later, when the beer is below 50°F/10˚C, fine with gelatin.

5. 24-48 hours later, package the beer.

Lately, I’ve been letting my beers carbonate at 40 psi for a day before dropping the pressure to ~12 psi for serving, they’re usually ready to drink at this point. I’ve found higher OG beers may take a tad longer to fully ferment, and in my opinion, maltier big beers benefit from a bit more conditioning (cold in keg), so those are some exceptions. Otherwise, APA, Brown Ale, ESB, IPA, Dry Stout, I’ve had great luck going grain to glass with all of these styles in 2 weeks or less!

| HYBRID FERMENTATION SCHEDULE |
When using hybrid strains to make styles such as California Common, Kölsch, and Cream Ale, I prefer to ferment on the cooler end of the range in hopes of limiting the development of yeast character caused by warmer fermentations. Because of this, not only do I propagate a touch more yeast than I do for ales, but I use a slightly different fermentation schedule as well.

1. Chill wort to target fermentation temp (58°F/14˚C), place in temp controlled environment, attach insulated temp probe to side of fermentor, and pitch yeast starter.

2. After 3-7 days (OG dependent) of active fermentation, or once attenuation is over 50%, remove probe from side of fermentor so it measures ambient then bump regulator to 70°F/21˚C*.

3. After 3-5 more days, once FG is stable and the sample is free of off-flavors, cold crash the beer to 30-32°F/0˚C.

4. 12-24 hours later, when the beer is below 50°F/10˚C, fine with gelatin.

5. 24-48 hours later, package the beer.

As you can see, this schedule is the same as my ale fermentation schedule except for that it allows for a few more days of active fermentation.

And that’s how I do it. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Cheers!

* People often ask why I remove the probe from the side of the carboy when changing the chamber temperature– it’s because I want the temp to rise/fall slowly and I don’t like hearing the compressor on my freezer running for hours on end. I’m not sure what other good reason there is for this, but it works for me, so I do it. I’ve left the probe attached many times on accident, it works just fine as well.

Article used courtesy of http://brulosophy.com / Marshall Schott for the purposes of this assignment. Original article located here: http://brulosophy.com/methods/fermentation-schedules/