Mike has left beer in the primary for a month due to timing conflicts and didn’t have any trouble. Although not best practice, you should be ok with 3 weeks in the primary. Just bottle it up when you get back to town and let it sit in the bottle for two weeks before cracking one or many open.

Bobby

I deleted the older comments from you because I thought your most recent one summed up your story best. We have it set so that first time comments need to be approved by us to be published. The delay in us approving it probably caused the confusion.

Anyway, I don’t think your batch is dead. I think the honey definitely got the yeast activity up in those first two days. I think if things are calmer now, that is ok. I know when I brewed with honey, the first two days of fermentation were incredibly vigorous. It sounds like everything is going fine.

I would leave your batch in your fermenter for 2 weeks and bottle it up (I am guessing that you rack to bottles). Let the beer condition at the same temperature for 2 weeks and it should be carbed up and ready when you see your friend.

We salute you for supporting the troops this way. The beer will probably be really dry tasting…lacking sweetness but will probably will be really drinkable as well.

Let us know how it turned out.

I thought I posted this last night but it looks like it didnt click. I have kind of a long story. I apologize if this gets posted twice.

I recently found out that my best friend is coming home from Iraq in 3 weeks. I live out of state and can make it home to see him in 4. I found out that he hasn’t had a beer in 4 months, so I decided to make an emergency welcome home batch for him, but hes only home for 2 weeks. SO… I decided that since I know the guy pretty well, potency and taste could offset any inadequate carbonation. This is only my 3rd batch in all, and I started doing some research to try and up the potency faster, and get a batch pounded out in 4.

The problem? My solution was to add a pound of raw honey to the boil to give the yeast some extra food, and I used a local brew shop recommended yeast that is apparently faster fermenting than the standard stuff I have been using. In my newbishness I didn’t realize that adding the honey would create a higher SG and therefore require more time both fermenting and conditioning despite the faster active yeast, at least I’ve been told. Within an hour of pitching the yeast I started seeing results, and by the next day I had a CRAZY amount of activity. The temperature even went as high as 74+ on my fermometer and I cooled the carboy down to 64 to keep it from overheating. My apartment is kept at 65 degrees so it was definitely not room temperature. After I cooled it down I returned it to it’s resting place, and by the end of the night (second day in primary fermentor) the activity was barely noticeable and I was only getting about 1 bubble a minute in the airlock. The temperature had stabilized to about 66-68 degrees, but the falloff of activity is scaring me. My first two batches slowed in activity after about 3-4 days and were ready to rack by the 8-9th. I figured since I added the honey it should be going for awhile, despite the faster acting yeast.

I am prepared to let it sit for a week or two and just deal with it as I have to. But am I being too worried? Did I kill off the yeast by cooling it down? I thought that what I was supposed to do. I realize that this may not be ready for my friend, but I would hate to have stillborn batch, if you’ll pardon the expression. I was very sanitary, and the smell coming from the airlock is that of a delicious modified pale ale, so I don’t think the yeast ruptured and died or were out-competed by some nasty microbes.

Any words of wisdom to help a confused newbie out would be much appreciated.

Thanks, and sorry for the novel!

Bobby

I took the SG, it was 1.01 or very close. Seems fast for only coooking since Sunday. This was from a sample batch I took before I put the airlock on originally. (The sample was put in a 12 oz bottle with a paper towel as a stopper and the sample sat touching the primary carboy.) The airlock is down to one bubble each 90-100 seconds. Temp is 63 - 66.

The fish tank thermometer read 72 the first day, now down to 66-68. The thermometer near the tank never got higher then 69ish.

So….
- Just ride it out until it completely stops bubbling, then move to secondary?
- Let it ride in the primary for two weeks?
- When it stops bubbling, bottle it?

Directions say to wait a week in primary, then move to secondary.

The Grolsch style bottles should work just fine. Actually, they are somewhat coveted by homebrewers because they are easier to cap than the crimp style bottles.

As long as the rubber seals are in place and are in good condition, you should be able to bottle up your beer with no problems at all.