BeerBorg

jimjohson wrote:thanks Gymrat. i tried one at the local brew pub and decided i got to make me one of these.

That is definitely a beer to brew when your pipeline is full so you can stash it away and forget about it.

Short answer: it depends
Here's a general guideline I use.

Fermentation:
Until it's done. Lighter beers take 3 - 5 days. Moderate take 7 - 12. Heavy take up to a month.
Get a hydrometer, it's cheap, and tells you when it's done. No guessing.

After fermentation:
For light to moderate beers with no dry hopping or other additions (oak, vanilla, anything...) I bottle immediately.
For those with additions I will transfer it to a secondary fermenter (not required, you can do it in the primary) for about a week. I've been trying shorter dry hopping periods (1 day) combined with a normal 1 week dry hop and have enjoyed the resulting increased hop aroma.

For heavy beers I will transfer to a secondary and let it sit for at least 2 weeks if not longer. I remember being told conditioning works better if the beer is all together rather than in bottles.
If they have some flavor addition then I will periodically taste the wort until I am happy with the amount of flavor that has been imparted into the beer. I left my porter on bourbon and oak for 2 months.
After that, I will let the heavier beers sit in the bottle for at least a month, but I'm finding the longer the better. I warm condition them.
Then I will throw them in the fridge for at least a week. I've found that keeping heavier beers in the fridge for 4 months (yeah it was hard) significantly changed the taste.
My bourbon porter, at 1 week in the fridge, was extremely oaky, almost too much. After 4 months...wow, didn't even taste like the same beer. It was much more balanced, but also a bit muted. I'd say 2 months was the golden age for those...it will depend on the beer.

IPAs that aren't super heavy I let carbonate at room temperature for 1 week, and then in the fridge they go. I've found drinking these fresh is how I prefer it. Yes, they are in your face hoppy usually, but that is what I like in an IPA.

Anyways, hope this is somewhat coherent.

I tend to leave it in the primary for 2-3 weeks but that's just due to "scheduling", not need. As others have said sometimes they are done in 5 days or 10 days or whatever.

I don't crack any bottles until 3 weeks, or 4 weeks depending on the beer - gravity, type, etc. Some beers I will try one at 4 weeks and then just ignore the rest for 3 months even more - IE really strong beers that I know will age well, big Belgians and the like. Some of those beers will last 2+ years in the bottle without degradation, so I use them as "deep pipeline" beers.

I have not used a secondary for anything for years. I used to secondary everything long ago. No longer, I find it unnecessary, even for my strongest beers. They age in the bottle just as well as they would in a secondary. You just need to be able to ignore them in the bottle.

That would change if I decided to brew a real sour instead of a sour mash pseudo-sour. Those DO need a secondary... as they need to sit for a 6-8 months at least.

I tend to go 3 weeks fermenting only rack to a secondary if i am dry hopping.
4 weeks in the bottle and 1 week in the fridgen
As others have said the conditioning part varies depending on the style wheat beers less high ABV beers longer.

I normally use 3 weeks in the LBK, then 4 weeks in bottles before I call it 'done', but these vary with other scheduling issues. I have found that the hydrometer or refractometer is not the only indicator of being done. When I check refractometer readings daily for the first few days (possible to do since I only need a sip for the reading and tasting), I find the readings are stable often within 2-3 days, suggesting it's done. But I can taste the buttery diacetyl and/or the cidery acetaldehyde for several days after that, while the yeast clean up their initial byproducts. As for time in bottles, I always use a few plastic soda bottles to confirm their carbonation by becoming firm, and can't resist trying one per week while they condition. I also had one that tasted great after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning so I went ahead and entered it in a competition, knowing the judging was still 3 weeks away.

I find that as long as I'm home (not traveling) I will check gravity in ~10 days to see where things stand. For most of my beers, this is plenty of time for primary fermentation to finish and the clean up process to be well underway, if not done. (Most of my beers are in the 1.048 to 1.055 range).

If I'm dry-hopping, I'll start at that point and let it go 5-7 days depending on what day I can bottle/keg. If I'm not dry hopping I may bottle/keg at the 10-day point or leave it until I hit a weekend when I have more time to bottle/keg. Since I started really focusing on yeast a long time ago I feel confident in it being done when the yeast tell me it's done and sometimes it's very quick.

At the same time, I neither rush it nor worry about it if I can't get to it for 2-3 weeks either.

If I keg, it may go directly into the fridge if I have space. If not, it may sit for 2-3 weeks.
If bottling, I don't check for at least 2 weeks to allow for full carbing.