Longest beer ferment?

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
jayjt29

jayjt29

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
217
Reaction score
50
Location
Leeds
What's everyone's record at the longest beer ferment? My Irish red ale i brewed on the 9th May is still going strong although the air lock has eased down over the last day or two.

The starting gravity was 1.051 and I used Wyeast 1084 Irish ale yeast.

Jay :)
 
My longest was about 5 weeks - it was a 2 can kit, though I can't remember which one, and it got stuck at 1020. I did everything you're supposed to do and ended up using amylase which quite quickly got it down to 1014 or so.
 
I think the longest it's taken me is probably 4 weeks with 2 ales. One was a Belgian dubbel at around 1.072 and the other was an American IPA at 1.055. used T58 and us05 respectively, not sure why it took so long.
 
i no longer check until at least 14 days, last one was dry hopped today, went in on 7th may.... its clear already... just hope it carbonates quickly, i only have 1 bottle of half hearted left :pray:
 
I guess you mean when we think it's stopped turning sugar into alcohol. I stopped thinking of that as a fixed time and instead think of it as an exponential curve; it never quite finishes. It might start off super quick and take only 3 days or so for the airlock activity to stop, but airlock activity is not a good indicator unless you have a completely airtight system.

Anyway, don't want to bore with technicalities. The longest I have left a beer in primary is 9 weeks. No surprise that even then I didn't consider it finished, just mostly finished. Didn't want to leave it longer in case of flavour transfer from the trub. Several weeks later in the keg and I have unexplained pressure increase. Hmm.
 
jayjt29 said:
What's everyone's record at the longest beer ferment? My Irish red ale i brewed on the 9th May is still going strong although the air lock has eased down over the last day or two.

The starting gravity was 1.051 and I used Wyeast 1084 Irish ale yeast.

Jay :)
Click to expand...

Good and interesting question. I did a small (13l) Wilko Stout brew on 30 April and bottled 14 May, even though it was sitting at 1016. It is still very obviously fermenting quite hard in the bottles. As the bottles are PET screw caps (Coopers) I am sort of managing them by leaving them for a couple of weeks in a warm place and not screwing the tops on properly so that excess gas can escape.

They are well lively tonight after the very warm weather today.

Hard top bottling of high FG beers is a recipe for disaster. Glass bottles explode and PET bottles (which are indestructible in HB use) over pressurise and absorb too much CO2 so that they turn acidic (carbonic acid) and very horrid.
 
Another 5 weeks here, couple of times in fact. Not intentionally, just sometimes things come up (family/work/car problems etc.) that delays the planned day.
 
I expect 3 weeks that's normal, has taken 4 to 5 weeks when it got too cold, now in the main with thermostat except for accidents don't even test until 3 week mark and normally bottle at that point. The exception was Coopers Ginger beer that really messed up, one I am sure never brewed at all, everyone loved the result lovely and sweet but sure no alcohol in it. Next needed extra yeast adding it too around 10 weeks and then found bottles pressurising so had to empty back into fermentor for another two weeks. Third by this time I should have known better also took ages after bottling it never pressurised the bottles. After three gave up never done a ginger beer since.
 
My Young's American Amber Ale kit took 5 weeks, just wouldn't stop fermenting.
The resulting beer was "orrible", strong homebrew taste (yeasty I suppose) mixed with strong hop flavours from the dry hopping - not good.
6 months on its mellowed but still tastes like homebrew.
 
Interesting thread, I work at sea on a 2 weeks, on 4 weeks off schedule, sometimes I do an extra week when someone is sick so then i only get 3 weeks off. I have been searching alot recently for how long fermentation usually takes so I can get my first 4 brews on the go with the right timing so I can be home when they are ready for bottling. My Mangrove Jacks NZ hopped Pilsener I was thinking of getting going as soon as I get home and then hopefully bottling 19 days later, just before I leave fopr work. The other 3 Bulldog Evil Dog DIPA, Raja's Reward IPA and their Strawberry Pale Ale I will start in the week before I leave, I will be home either after 2 or 3 weeks and post back here with the results as the Bulldogs Ale Kits are reputed to take a while....any coments to my plan welcome as these are my first brews ever.
 
All the Bulldog/Hambleton Bard brews seem to take a long time to brew. I wouldn't try to brew any of them in a hurry.
In my experience, they can easily be left in the primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks before they're anywhere near the bottling stage...
 
I have a lambic which has been in the primary since April 2015 if that counts? Brett, lacto and pedio don't like to be rushed.
 
IainM said:
This is your first post after joining over two years ago. Errmmm... welcome to the forum?
Click to expand...

I also don't like to be rushed :)
I actually was an active member of this forum (under a different username) up until about 2 years ago, but for reasons best left unsaid I took a break from it.
 

Similar threads

DominicRL
Losing flavour in primary fermentor following small heat rise
Replies
8
Views
444
DominicRL
DominicRL
David Woods
Advice On A Stalled All Grain Fermentation
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
foxy
foxy
Omega
Greetings from Swindon - what kit I should buy next?
Replies
0
Views
749
Omega
Omega
David Woods
Undercarbed All Grain - can it be fixed?
Replies
10
Views
665
Twostage
Twostage
Chippy_Tea
Beer connoisseur drinks coronation ale from 1952
Replies
1
Views
181
MashBag
MashBag

Latest posts

Back
Top