BeerBorg

I am a newbie, please forgive my ignorance. I purchased a 1 gallon Wild Spirit IPA recipe. The instructions say to ferment only for 7 days. Everything I've seen says typical fermentation time is 14 days. Is the 7 days because this is only for 1 gallon? Is 7 days enough? Thanks for the help.

Home Brew Lesson #1: patience

All else equal ... fermentation takes ~7 days to finish; however ... it's generally best ... regardless of batch size ... to allow more time for the yeast to 'clean up' after themselves before bottling. Waiting 7 more days before bottling is well worth it.

Thank you. Further review shows veteran posters recommending a 21 day fermentation as a general rule. 7 days seemed awfully quick, but wth do I know?

Most people want to brew like cooking a meal-----30 minutes of preparation and cooking and then EAT! Beer will really improve if you can wait 17-21 days. Then, there's the patience in bottling and carbing. Once you have a good pipeline going where you have beer ready to drink and can wait for new beers to complete, you'll enjoy your beer so much better. It's hard to wait but it's very much worth it.
Happy Brewing!

Welcome aboard 5k!
Three weeks is a good standard. I use it still after 5 years brewing. Ask the questions, make the beer, it will all become clearer in time. But there will always be new frontiers, which keeps it interesting. Good luck, brew on and keep us posted.

Guess home brewing a mere 12 years doesn't qualify one as a veteran. Who knew?

14 days is plenty long enough for wort to reach its terminal gravity.
No harm letting it ride another 7 days but it's hardy necessary.

Like Mamma used to say ... it's your beer.
Do with it what you want.