St Peter's Ruby Red Ale

[ronan-tulla]

Hello Brewers, I am a new and very amateur brewer with a few questions, if someone could please help. I bought a starter kit from HomeBrew West in Galway (really friendly guys) and with it I purchased a St.Peters Ruby Red Ale kit. I started it off on Saturday last 6th September and within 24 hrs it was fermenting nicely. Now the question, how long should it stay in the tank for? The kit says 4-6 days but I'm sure the guy in the shop mentioned 4 weeks. Fermentation has slowed down but its still active.  Any help would be great, thanks.

[Garry]

Welcome to the NHC 

Leave it in there for 2 weeks anyway. It will give the yeast a chance to clean up. Some people transfer the beer to a new fermenter after a week and let it in the secondary for 2 weeks. I wouldn't worry about that at this stage of your brewing career. Four weeks is probably too long in the primary fermenter. You can get off flavours if the beer is sitting on the trub (the creamy layer that settles to the bottom of the fermenter) too long.

Leave the beer in the bottles for 2 weeks at 19 to 21°C. Then put them somewhere cool for as long as your patience will endure. It should peak at 6 to 8 weeks but you'll probably have most of it drank by then  The St Peters Red Ale is a nice kit.

[TheCavanMan]

I brewed this kit a couple of months back and can tell you it gets really nice about 5-6 weeks in the bottle.

Tasted it after about 2 weeks in the bottle and thought I had messed up somehow but time proved me wrong.

It was also my first kit.

I have it in the cupboard ready to brew again once the FVs are finished fermenting.

[johnrm]

Hi Ronan,  Welcome on board.
Is that Tulla in Clare?

[ronan-tulla]

Thank you TheCavanMan, how long did you leave it in the fermenter, 2 weeks as above?

Yes, johnrm thats Tulla, Co.Clare.

[TheCavanMan]

I normally give them two weeks in the FV before bottling.

Saying that I have a Bulldog Brew Double IPA in a FV now, it's in there 2 and a half weeks and still bubbling. But I think 2 weeks is good.

[johnrm]

Well, Balls.
As soon as I leave the county, up pops another homebrewer.
Bastid County is practically a Desert when it comes to decent beer.
Welcome on board!

The only other lad I know was brewing in Clare was in Mullagh.

[ronan-tulla]

Well johnrm I'll try to not be too good at it?? Ok, so now all action in the FV seems to have stopped, the hydrometer sat at the bottom of the test vessel when I took off a sample and the sample was cloudy with a lot of sediment (FV has a tap at the bottom). Am I still ok to leave in the FV? two weeks is up on Saturday.

[johnrm]

Aim to be the best!
Clare needs good beer.

Get another reading a day or more apart, if it's the same then you're good to bottle.

[LordEoin]

be the very best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqXlSwBIHFc

[ronanp]

Have this in the FV for 8 days now. It's been fermenting away at 18 degrees. Looking very murky but is around and abouts the target gravity reading. If I don't bottle tomorrow it wont get done till Sunday at the earliest.

[LordEoin]

what's the rush? If you leave it another week a lot of the murk will have dropped out

[ronanp]

Should I be moving it to another FV ?

Dont have one but have been thinking about getting one.

[Garry]

Chillax. 3 or 4 weeks in primary won't do it any harm.

[LordEoin]

A second FV is very handy for secondary and bulk priming. But for now as Garry said, chillax