Too long in the FV?

[timothio]

G'Day all,

Think I could have ballsed up a bit...

Due to an unexpected (rainy) holiday in the New Forest last week, and my overwhelming need for peace, quiet, and sheer unadulterated laziness over the weekend after spending said holiday entertaining my 5 year old niece (I never want kids of my own!!), my latest brew has been in the FV for 18 days.

Finally got round to putting a new brew on tonight, and was planning to bottle my 18 day brew with the empty water bottles from my new brew (as I always do), but my 18 day brew has a wierd whiff to it. No idea what it smells like, cant quite put my finger on it, its not something I've had before. There's no mould on top so I dont think its infected as such, but I wonder if 18 days in the FV is just a bit too long... Maybe its picked up some undesirable stench from all the dead yeast ont bottom?

Any ideas anyone? I havent sent it drain-wards yet, so theres still hope... Should I just bottle it and hope for the best? Cant be @rsed tonight, so it will have to wait til day 19!!

Cheers, ears!

[mysterio]

I bet it will be fine, have you had a taste ?

[timothio]

Not yet... I'm scared of it!!

[mickhew]

I'd bottle it anyway, 18 days doesn't sound too long, although pushing it a bit. You have nothing to lose. Maybe use 2ltr PET bottles, to shorten the bottling process ( less bottles to sanitise and fill) so if it goes tits up, not a major problem. Odd smells are common from fv's, you probably know that already though, if you have a few kits under your belt.

[EoinMag]

I leave mine as standard for 4-5 weeks, the beer will be a lot better than normal and won't take as long to taste good from the bottle or keg.

[timothio]

I leave mine as standard for 4-5 weeks, the beer will be a lot better than normal and won't take as long to taste good from the bottle or keg.

4 - 5 weeks in the same FV with no racking off? Blimey, I thought 18 days was pushing my luck, seems its not!

Guess I'll be bottling tomorrow eve then!

Cheers everyone for the advice, as always you've come up trumps, thats why I love you all so much..!!

[EoinMag]

I leave mine as standard for 4-5 weeks, the beer will be a lot better than normal and won't take as long to taste good from the bottle or keg.

4 - 5 weeks in the same FV with no racking off? Blimey, I thought 18 days was pushing my luck, seems its not!

Guess I'll be bottling tomorrow eve then!

Cheers everyone for the advice, as always you've come up trumps, thats why I love you all so much..!!

The Bogeyman here is something called yeast autolysis, which is when the yeast starts to burst and consume itself, it takes months apparently and is not very common at all. Some bigger Belgian beers are left up to a year in a FV, even if they have been racked they still sit on a cake.


Don't worry until you go into the room that your fermenter is in and the smell makes you retch, apparently that's when it's too long, and it takes anything upwards from about three months.

[b.all]

i would have thought 5 weeks was too long but from what i know anything up to 30days is considered ok. one of my favourite batches was left for 24 days due to waiting for a new siphon tube to arrive as my old one went a bit manky.

[EoinMag]

It seems that the common perception here is to rush beer to be ready, it's not the way to go about it.
I am on http://www.homebrewtalk.com a lot and there, the common knowledge is to leave beer at least a month in the primary fermenter with no secondary. The reasoning is that the yeast cleans up a lot of the undesirable elements of the brew when falling down through the brew, cleaning and conditioning the beer. One month in the fermenter and then 3 weeks in bottles, hence my statement on another thread that people shouldn't be making judgements on beers that are 2-3 weeks old and wondering why they don't taste very good. They simply haven't had enough time to condition and a lot of that can be done in bulk in the primary FV.

[timothio]

Well, thanks again for even more replies, my brew is still un-bottled, not for want of trying I might add, I just keep finding more urgent things to do... So have decided today (on its 21 day anniversary) that this brew will be left for another week in the FV, just to see what happens. Might turn out good, might turn out undrinkable, we'll have to see...

[EoinMag]

Honestly there's not a chance it'll be undrinkable. Not unless you've done something else wrong.

[timothio]

Honestly there's not a chance it'll be undrinkable. Not unless you've done something else wrong.

If usually it would be OK, the only thing I can see going wrong is the fact that I've opened up the FV a few times recently, and the protective layer of CO2 may have wandered off and an infection may have wandered in... Hell, we'll see what happens.

The b@stard is that I now need another FV...

[Oggy' Bar]

Finally got round to putting a new brew on tonight, and was planning to bottle my 18 day brew with the empty water bottles from my new brew (as I always do), but my 18 day brew has a wierd whiff to it.
Cheers, ears!

I usually leave my brews in the FV for 10days and then cool to 5C for 2-3 days, then rack to cornies.

A good hoppy brew smells wonderful ...until I switch on the cooler...then it has an off-smell to it, I don't know what it is but it is always the same...a taste of the FV dregs proves that the beer still tastes fresh and after conditioning in the cornie..they are always nice hoppy brews..It just seems to be that when most of the yeast has settled out of the fermented beer in the FV, the fresh smell is replaced by a slightly off smell.