[itsjoao]

Hey guys, im fermenting a double ipa, and i wanna know if there are any upsides for keeping an IPA in primary even after airlock activity is done and FG is reached. My plan was to ferment at primary for 7 days, rack to secondary, Dry hop for 4 days and cold crash. Any help?

[BrewBama]

Some folks leave it on the yeast after fermentation is complete to do some sort of clean up. I believe there is no need to leave beer in the fermenter after fermentation. In fact I believe it can do more harm than good. I like to get it in a pressurized keg to ensure air doesn’t get to it and get it cold so any air that inadvertently does get to it will be slow to cause damage.

However, it sounds like you are going to transfer to secondary to perform some specialty process on it. In that case I can see leaving the beer in a secondary as long as it’s airtight. I like to use a pressurized keg as a secondary.


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[tommymorris]

My beers often stay in the fermenter 9-10 days after fermentation finishes. I have to wait for an empty keg.

I don’t use a secondary as that extra transfer can oxidize the beer.

[majorvices]

You can "probably" leave it up to 6 weeks if cool. There's not a lot of osmotic pressure that will break down the yeast. I always leave my beers for a few to several days after fermentation is over mainly to cold crash.

[denny]

No there is no advantage.  Some people say the yeast will "clean up", but if there are no fermentables left that won't happen.  But there's also no harm in leaving it for a while longer.

[Semper Sitientem]

When I posed a similar question to the brewmaster at my local craft brewery, he stated at the home brewer level, there was more risk of infection transferring to a secondary than any perceived benefit. Since then, I’ve routinely kept my IPAs in the primary for 2-3 weeks and my dark beers at least 4 weeks. This includes a 41 point award winning porter. So, I think he gave some good advice. I will add one caveat. I use conical fermentors so the surface area of the trub is significantly less than a carboy, which could yield different results.