First Brew Recipe Guideline Part 2 of 3, steps #12-#15
Fermentation Of Your Beer
12. Fermentation of Your Beer: Your ale yeast will be very happy if left alone at a temperature of 60-70 degrees and out of the light. Find a quiet place to put the fermenter to allow the yeast to work at converting the sugar to alcohol. It will take 18-24 hours for your yeast to begin fermentation. You can reduce this lag time by swirling your fermenter every 2-4 hours. This will pick the yeast up off the bottom of the fermenter and get it energized! Try to resist the temptation of peeking into the fermenter as this will only introduce oxygen (now oxygen is not good!!) and bacteria. After flocculation, which is the settling out of the yeast, your beer will be ready to "rack" (thats brewspeak for siphoning) to your secondary fermenter. It will be hard to see your beer while it is in the opaque bucket, so to tell if your beer is ready for racking look for this other sign: If your airlock is releasing less than one bubble per minute than it is o.k. To rack. Your beer will be in the primary fermenter for approx. 7-10 days. If you leave your beer in the primary fermenter longer than one week after fermentation has ceased it will begin to pick-up a yeast bite (white bread-yeasty flavor) from the dead yeast cells. This is one reason why it is important to rack the beer from the primary to the secondary as soon as yeast flocculation has taken place.
13. The Secondary Fermenter: Your beer ought to be ready to bottle about 7-10 days after racking into the secondary. The purpose of the secondary is to age and clarify the beer in a clean environment. If racked carefully the beer in the secondary fermenter is not sitting on a lot of dead yeast cells. It is o.k. To let the beer sit in the secondary fermenter for many weeks or months...in fact it is even encouraged!!
14. Taking a Second Hydrometer Reading: When you get a siphon-started take the first bit of the flow for a hydrometer reading. After noting the number in your log put a small amount of foil or saran wrap over the top. Put the sample where it won't get accidentally dumped The sample will continue to ferment and it will make for an easy daily measurement of gravity changes.
15. Taking a Third Hydrometer Reading: When you notice that your secondary reading has stabilized dump it out and take a third sample. If you get the same reading as the second reading, or very close to it, than you are ready to bottle. Ultimately, what you are measuring is the difference between fermentable sugars and non-fermentable solids (A.K.A. "body")