Author: Marshall Schott
I’m not the most patient person in the world. When I started brewing, it was commonplace to leave beer in primary for 3-5 days then rack to secondary and store it for 2-3 more weeks before packaging. It sucked, but I did it, mainly because everywhere I looked I found cautionary tales of batches gone bad as a direct result of one’s failure to “give it more time.” Warnings continue to abound about the great evil of impatience in this hobby.
As my obsession with brewing grew, I read, listened, and asked a bunch of questions. Through this, I began to learn the reasons for such extended fermentation times were likely a function of a few factors, namely shitty yeast, lacking pitch rates, and poor control of fermentation temperature. This led to informal experimentation where I eventually learned I could turn beers around in significantly less time by pitching an adequate amount of healthy yeast and properly controlling temps during fermentation, and the beers were as good as if not better than those I was making before.
What follows are the typical fermentation schedules I use for beers fermented with ale and hybrid yeast strains (for those fermented with traditional lager strains, check out my Quick Lager Method page). They’re not unique, I know plenty of folks who do the same thing, I’m just writing about it here to relieve my fingers from typing it out so often.
A couple assumptions:
– You’re using a good calculator and making adequately sized yeast starters.
– You have some method of controlling fermentation temperatures (up and down) with relative precision.
– You keg… if not, add 2-3 more weeks for bottle conditioning.
– You’re actually interested in quicker turnaround times (if not, that’s cool, but this will bore you).
| ALE FERMENTATION SCHEDULE |
1. Chill wort to target fermentation temp (66°-68°F/19˚-20˚C)), place in temp controlled environment, attach insulated temp probe to side of fermentor, and pitch yeast starter.
2. After 2-5 days (OG dependent) of active fermentation, remove probe from side of fermentor so it measures ambient then bump regulator to 75°F/24˚C* (the Black Box makes this easy).
3. After 2-5 more days, once FG is stable and the sample is free of off-flavors, cold crash the beer to 30-32°F/0˚C.
4. 12-24 hours later, when the beer is below 50°F/10˚C, fine with gelatin.
5. 24-48 hours later, package the beer.
Lately, I’ve been letting my beers carbonate at 40 psi for a day before dropping the pressure to ~12 psi for serving, they’re usually ready to drink at this point. I’ve found higher OG beers may take a tad longer to fully ferment, and in my opinion, maltier big beers benefit from a bit more conditioning (cold in keg), so those are some exceptions. Otherwise, APA, Brown Ale, ESB, IPA, Dry Stout, I’ve had great luck going grain to glass with all of these styles in 2 weeks or less!
| HYBRID FERMENTATION SCHEDULE |
When using hybrid strains to make styles such as California Common, Kölsch, and Cream Ale, I prefer to ferment on the cooler end of the range in hopes of limiting the development of yeast character caused by warmer fermentations. Because of this, not only do I propagate a touch more yeast than I do for ales, but I use a slightly different fermentation schedule as well.
1. Chill wort to target fermentation temp (58°F/14˚C), place in temp controlled environment, attach insulated temp probe to side of fermentor, and pitch yeast starter.
2. After 3-7 days (OG dependent) of active fermentation, or once attenuation is over 50%, remove probe from side of fermentor so it measures ambient then bump regulator to 70°F/21˚C*.
3. After 3-5 more days, once FG is stable and the sample is free of off-flavors, cold crash the beer to 30-32°F/0˚C.
4. 12-24 hours later, when the beer is below 50°F/10˚C, fine with gelatin.
5. 24-48 hours later, package the beer.
As you can see, this schedule is the same as my ale fermentation schedule except for that it allows for a few more days of active fermentation.
And that’s how I do it. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Cheers!
*People often ask why I remove the probe from the side of the carboy when changing the chamber temperature– it’s because I want the temp to rise/fall slowly and I don’t like hearing the compressor on my freezer running for hours on end. I’m not sure what other good reason there is for this, but it works for me, so I do it. I’ve left the probe attached many times on accident, it works just fine as well.
93 thoughts on “Fermentation Methods”
Quick question. I have the means to cold crash but I’ve been apprehensive about doing so because of the back pressure created. I’m afraid of pulling in airlock material and O2.
Any suggestions on how to keep that from happening short racking into a keg and closing the environment?
I’ve been doing this for years and almost always get a little StarSan from the airlock pulled in, it’s never been an issue. I know some folks who use foam stoppers or foil, though some O2 is likely still entering the carboy… I just don’t think it has much of an impact.
I’ve had an idea I have never tried: If I switched to a balloon towards the end of fermentation, I could then cold crash and the previously escaped CO2 would be going back into the vessel instead of air. (again… never tried this)
I know this is an old post but if you use a blow off tube get 6 feet, coil it up and put in star-san or whatever you use for a blow-off liquid. By the time the beer is cold enough it will not suck the star san all 6 feet (coiled) and since there is CO2 in the tube you are fine.
The S-shaped airlocks bubble correctly in both directions. Ever since I started cold crashing, I’ve been using those.
Depending on what you’re making, you may still want a blowoff hose for the first few days.
Try switching from the s shaped air lock to the three piece air lock
On your fermentation profile, you say that this initial 2-5 days is “OG dependent”. Have you developed a general guideline to determine what length? I imagine you have a rough set of brackets (e.g. 1030-1040 = 2 days, 1040-1050 = 3 days). Would you be willing to share those at all? I’m trying to work on clarifying/streamlining my process and I’d love to see what you’ve settled on for this aspect.
thanks.
To be honest, I trust my process enough that I often don’t measure SG before ramping, generally starting the temp increase 2-3 days after first signs of krausen.
I saw on your San Diego Super Yeast post that you fermented at 65 for three days then went to 70 for a few more days before cold crashing.
Was that post written before this new ale fermentation process was something you did? Can I follow this temperature schedule for San Diego Super Yeast?
On another note, this website has been very helpful. I also hope you’re enjoying the Fresno heat. I grew up there. Moved to Seal Beach and have not returned.
Thanks so much for the support! Yeah, you can follow the ale ferm schedule for 090, that’s what I do.
Hey Marshall,
I am following this process for a Hefeweizen I just brewed and about to begin this cold crash. I keg my beer and want to get enough of the Hefe yeast into the kegs. Do you deviate from your process above if you wish keep the beer hazy during transfer?
Love you site man, keep up the great work.
Matt
Hey Matt, thanks for the support! Unfortunately, I have no clue how to answer your question, as I never make Hefeweizen. I suppose I might skip the cold crash and gelatin fining altogether… but I really don’t know.
I actually just cold crashed a Hefeweizen last month. It cleared up quite a bit from cold crashing, but still has that hazy look to it. I don’t think the taste is any different from the last time I brewed it before I had I kegerator. It certainly doesn’t taste like a filtered wheat beer.
Great, thanks for the info, GlowingApple! I think I am just going to keg it without a cold crash. Then I will cold crash it for a little conditioning then shake the keg back up prior to serving.
Hey so I’m brewing a robust porter. It had an OG of 1.061 and after 4 days it’s balanced out at 1.012. It’s been fermenting at about 66 degrees so my question is how long should I leave it in the primary to bulk age? I have moved it into another room that is at 75 to clean it up where it’ll stay for the rest of the fermenation..
Thanks!
Totally up to you! I’d be inclined to ferment it for about 10 days, crash, fine with gelatin (aka liquid time), then keg and throw it in the keezer in gas for 4-5 days before enjoying.
It’s ready when it’s ready. There is no preset time as there are too many variables to consider. You could maybe prescribe a timeline if you make the same beer the same way often enough to know how your process and ingredients react each time.
Taste it. Sample it. Check for diacetyl and other fermentation byproducts that you do not desire.
Your schedules show a range of days for each stage, but most of your articles use your black box. Do you tell it when to go to the next step? If not, how many days do you have it set for with each schedule?
I go back and forth between Black Box profiles and manually changing temps… depends on whether I remember to set the Black Box schedule or not.
I am using the ale fermentation schedule for a hoppy low alcohol IPA with an OG of 1.034. After 2 days of active fermentation at about 20 C (68 F) I’ve reached 1.011, 2 points off my target FG. I have started ramping my temp aiming for 24 C (75 F) so I figure all the work of fermentation will be all done within the next 3 days!!
I bottle my beer so I’m wondering if you have any ideas about how the accelerated fermentation process would effect bottle conditioning?
I know plenty of people who bottle condition after using a similar ferm schedule, works exactly the same as extended fermentations.
Oops…left fermenter in at 32F just a little too long during cold crash. We’ll see what happens.
Won’t make a difference.
Letting a bit of the ice melt. thx.
Marshall, I am following this schedule and after 5 days would dry hopping then ramping up temperature to 75 effect the flavor profile?
In the past I’ve always been inclined to let my Ales ferment at the same temp for 14+ days. Following your schedule here, am I moving things too fast if after a week I’m already cold crashing things. i.e. 2-3 days to reach 50% attenuation, 3-4 days and FG is stable, proceeding onto cold crash. For some reason that seems really quick.
Not in my opinion.
Following the bru ale schedule for a mosaic SMaSH I put together that I’m hoping is similar to a Southern Tier 2xSMASH. I’m cold crashing now and, for clarification, do I leave the temp probe loose and measure ambient or put it back against the carboy? Thanks, as always, for making my beer better!
For crashing, I usually let the probe measure ambient, but I’ve done it both ways and it works either way.
Will the ale fermentation schedule work if I don’t use a starter but only pitch rehydrated dry yeast?
Has for me!
Hey man when would you dry hop using this method?
Right around the same time I’m ramping the temp up.
Awesome thanks.
Great method. I’ve tried it for my last ale but I still have some concerns 🙂 I have 2 questions:
1. Do you really let your beer hit 75°F/24˚C? Or just ambient temperature is at 75°F/24˚C and the beer is a bit lower? I read alot of warnings about high fermentation temperatures and ester formation
2. If you are dry hopping around the same time that you are ramping the temperature up, like you wrote before, do you think this affects the dry hop extraction? I’ve read many oppinions that say that the ideal dry hop temp should be lower, at 16-18 C.
Thanks again for all your work! I’ve taken alot of great tips from your website and they all improved my brewing process and most importantly they’ve made it easier.
1. It’s usually ambient, though the beer often ends up pretty close to ambient temps. Never been an issue for me.
2. Hmm, this is certainly something worthy of more exploration. While I’ve been fine with my dry hop character, it’s possible that warm of a temp with a later drop is having some sort of impact.
Thanks for the kind words!
Wondering if you’ve ever tried a Belgian beer with this fermentation schedule. I’m going to be doing a dubbel shortly and was thinking of using this schedule. Any thoughts?
Yep, I’ve made precisely 1 Dubbel with this method and it came out just fine. I’m not really a Belgian beer fan, though, hence it was only 1 time.
Hey are you using a heat sourc to raise the ambient temp in your chamber? Or just relying on temp generated during fermentation. Thanks
During the warmer months, I don’t need a heat source, but I use a ceramic heater when it’s cooler outside.
Have you done any fruit additions within this fermentation schedule and if so when and for how long?
A few times. I wait until fermentation is complete at the warmest temp, add the fruit directly to primary, then let it go another week or so until any secondary fermentation is complete. Then it’s the same crash, fine, keg, carb procedure.
Awesome, thanks!
Do you think that your ale schedule above is dependent at all on using a yeast starter, or do you think it applies as well with directly pitched dry yeast? Curious if in your opinion the reduced cell viability of the latter takes a longer period of time to ramp / fully attenuate…
I’ve used it with direct pitched dry and liquid yeast, as well as yeast starters and slurry taken from a prior batch. Works fine every time, at least so far.
What do you look for when you taste a sample? Have you used notty before? Its pretty quick. Mine is at 1.008sg now after only 3 days. Started at 1.050.
Clean, no off flavors. I have used Notty many times, I’m not a big fan.
Really? What is you favourite yeast for a basic APA?
I’d have to say it’s a tie between WLP090, WLP002, and I’m willing to admit US05. I have plans to make some APA and IPA with W-34/70 to see how that works out.
Ok thanks man. I have never used a liquid yeast before frankly. I’ve used slurry many times but it was always from dry yeast pack. I did like US05.
Disgusted to see you using the weird Americanism “on accident” rather than the obviously correct, by accident. I’m not sure how your British heritage allowed this to happen!
Firstly, I love that you wrote this. Secondly, if I were to write “on accident” it’d surely be “by accident”. As for Marshall, his surname is Schott – Germanic. We wouldn’t have him, and Zee Germans have disowned him for his oxymoronic “quick lagers”.
Do you transfer to a secondary at all anymore? Ive always done it to help clarify my beer. But now that I am using gelatin I am wondering if a secondary even necessary. Thanks.
I haven’t transferred to secondary in years, but even when I did, I never understood how doing so had any impact on clarity. Gravity is gravity, particulate is going to fall out at the same rate in primary as it will in a second fermentor. In fact, it seems to be racking to a secondary would actually increase the time to clarify beer because the act of racking would stir up trub. Anyway, I’m ranting. Hope that helps. Cheers!
Never thought of it that way. Always good to learn something new. Thanks!
Hey Marshall have a question here: I have a fermentation chamber and i wonder how you set-it so it wont be too cold^ Because when i put my temperature sensor inside the beer (thermowell) the cooler will stay on until it reach the rigth temperature but after it will be too cold…understand what i mean.
Hmm. I don’t use a thermowell, so that’s not an issue I’ve ever had to deal with. My hunch would be that even if the outer portion of the beer gets a little cooler than ferm temp, you’d be okay, as exothermic heat from fermentation will warm it right back up. But I don’t know.
If you pull the temperature probe out of the thermowell and let it read ambient air while making larger temp changes, it won’t over shoot your set temp as easily. Insert it back in the thermowell to check your progress occasionally until your close then leave it in.
Wow, this was so interesting and I feel like I’ve learned a lot between this post and the one on using gelatin. My husband and I are novice brewers, so we haven’t brewed that much, but you’ve explained everything so well, I feel like we could follow it! Thank you for sharing your fermentation schedule too.
Cheers!
Thank you Marshall for all of your research! My question is yeast starter temp? Same as wort? Cooler than? Never warmer? I get so confused.
Starter I made last night was 80F when I pitched yeast, and I won’t cool it down before pitching into 66F wort tomorrow.
Sweet! Thank you for the quick response! I’m relatively new at this. Looking like my issue is narrowing down to not enough yeast. Cheers!
Using the hybrid schedule, and I have no black box yet 😢, something came up and I won’t be able to follow the schedule, exactly. What temp would be best to extend?, I need 2 extra days, or would it be better to cold crash longer, assuming it’s fully attenuated?
I’d probably just crash longer
Do you have a predilection for a particular heat source in your fermentation chamber? Santa delivered the black box last year and I am just now(!) getting around to putting it all together with a 7 cu ft chest freezer.
Are ceramic heaters (presumably safer than the DIY paint can) equally effective? I would prefer to utilize mother nature, but the NE summer/fall temps are wildly inconsistent.
Many thanks for all your efforts. This site is the Library of Alexandria for all homebrewers!
Hi Marshall cheers from Costa Rica! Nice website and great info. I am just a beginner in this hobbie but learning. As you said, most brewers recommend time (weeks) before packing. Many say even using kegs you need conditioning. How a good starter and temp ramp can make the same effect as leaving yeast work in cleaning off flavors (time dependent) ? I read folks using almost your same technique but still giving time.
When you force carb at 40 for a day do you then purge the keg then dial it to serving psi or just lower the gauge and let it work itself out?
I purge until it “sounds” like it’s close to where I want it to be. If when I put the disconnect back on I don’t hear any gas flow into the keg, I’ll purge a little more.
What I have done is hit it with 30 psi for a day or so and just turn the gas off on the keg and after a dozen pints that thing is down to serving psi and nothing is really overly carbonated and no gas is purged.
US-05 has a max range of 72. Your ambient 75 temp is regardless of what yeasts temp range suggests? Just curious. I have a cream ale fermenting with 05 right now and about 5 days in so I might as well try this method. Just curious what you thought.
Hey Marshall I’m a huge fan and I’m sorry to ask about a super old thread. I plan to brew my cream ale recipe with Wyeast’s Kolsch strain. You think your hybrid fermentation schedule would still clean up with this low floc yeast? I don’t typically use gelatin, but will cold crash the crap out of that bad boy. Hope to have it all wrapped up and ready to keg after two weeks.
I’ve never actually used that strain myself, but given the nature of other Kolsch yeasts I’ve used, I think you’re good to go. Gelatin would certainly hasten the process!
Hey Marshall,
I just purchased a Ink-bird temperature controller. I’m gonna set it up to keep my beer fermenting at 67F but my question is, should I turn my fermentation fridge to 9 which is its max cooling power or should it be at 5 which is medium power?
That’s exactly what I do.
Hey, in step two of the fermentation schedules you write “OG dependent”. I’m assuming that you mean 50% attenuation like in the quick lager method?
Yep!
Heads up.. this gets even easier if you attach a flared fitting and liquid disconnect to your siphon hose. Then you only need to run sanitizer thru the tube not worry about the outside that would be toucing the keg walls. This also lets you put the lid on and open the vent so there is less mixing of air if you purged co2 and less chance of something getting in thru your starsan soaked towel.
Hi Marshall
Love your work!
Currently brewing a pils, im into quick turn around beer, with great tast, So far the ale method works a charm everytime!. Been reading your comments on the lager method page. Am I correct to assume that I can use the Hybrid method using some pilsner yeast and still get a decent beer, Will clear with gelatin when cold crashing etc. If your having good results with that Im keen to have crack
Cheers
These days, I ferment most of my lagers just like I do ales— at 66F with strains like L17 Harvest, L13 Global, and L28 Urkel.
Im curious to what method you use to check gravity. Ive been using an old turkey baster for years, but recently with the neipa craze ive been looking to upgrade / change method to introduce as little o2 as possible. Ive read about beer thiefs and such, seems the jury is about 50/50 on them… just curious to your method, forgive me if its been posted somewhere here already
I still use a turkey baster and just try to be as careful as possible.
Great article!
What do you think about bottling with this schedule but skipping cold crash with US-05?
I typically do 1 gallon small batch and often times I’m fully fermented and have stable gravity in 3 days. Should I try to time my step 2 heat bump at 1.5 days, roughly 50% of desired final gravity?
I’ve been performing my heat increase near or after gravity stabilization, is that actually doing anything or is it just heating sleepy yeast?
If what you’re doing is working for you, I’d say there’s really no need to change anything. A lot of us bump our temp to expedite fermentation, a problem you’re apparently not having.
Thanks Marshall. Since my fermentation time does not seem to be an issue, I was more focused on the yeast’s cleanup processes and keeping them active as long as possible to get that done, but not prematurely bumping up the temp as to get fruity flavors. In your opinion and experience do you feel it is best to do that while fermentation is still active or when I do it, which is basically after fermentation has stopped?
Very much appreciate your time, knowledge, and Brulosophy as a whole.
I just got the FermWrap fermentation heater to put around my Ss Brewtech brew bucket in my mini fridge. Do you think I should still take the probe off to capture ambient temp? I’m worried my beer will be hotter than the ambient since my heater is directly on the fermenter…
I don’t think it’s necessary at all, I just do it as a matter of course these days. Given you’re using a wrap, I’d probably keep it in place.
Hi Marshall,
Great website, I’ve found it really useful after having a 5 year break from brewing.
I’m currently following your Ale schedule above…the SG is now stable, but I wondered if you could elaborate a bit more on what you mean by ‘off flavours’?? Which are the main ones to look out for and how can a novice spot them? Also, is 24 hour cold crash adequate? When would you take it to 48?
Thanks for explaining that the attenuation should be at least 50% before we remove the probe from the fermentor. My brother has mentioned he thinks it would be fun to start brewing craft beers at home, so I was thinking about getting him the supplies he would need for Christmas this year. I’ll have to save this article so he can use it as a reference when getting started with homebrew!
Really appreciate all of your articles and experiments. Sorry if this has been asked before but for ales do you crash in stages as per your lager method, or more quickly?
These days, I don’t crash anything in stages. Rather, I connect either CO2 from the tank or a CO2 filled balloon (BrüLoonLock) to the fermenter and drop the temp to 33F.
Hello
It’s a very old post, but I’m following your advice. I am not clear about the reference to this fermentation procedure and the pressure in case of isobaric fermentation. Do you follow any guidelines? Do I understand that the entire process refers to atmospheric fermentation?
Thank you so much