This is my first brew. I have only one fermenter. I want to let my beer condition in the fermenter past the week recomended for primary fermentation by the extract maker. Im wondering if it is best to turn off the immersion heater to allow the beer to cool a little after the fermentation is over to reduce the risk of yeasty flavours in the beer.

What can you tell me about your experiences with leaving the brew on the trub and the effect this has on the final product.

Cheers

I routinely leave my beer in primary 3-4 weeks will no ill effects. I don't use a secondary at all most of the time. The extra time on the yeast clears up any unwanted esters produced by the yeast during reproduction and also helps with completing attenuation.

Wayne

I just had an American Wheat stall out on me (3 weeks) at 1.022. I pitched a packet of dry wheat yeast and dropped that pig to 1.010 but it took another 2 1/2 weeks. Thats a total of 5.5 weeks on the primary yeast cake and it is one of my finer brews...Autolysis is a myth IMHO.

On the homebrew scale, for the most part. It is a concern for extremely tall fermenters, as are commonly used on the commercial scale. For a 6 gallon carboy or bucket, as long as you are counting weeks and not months, and you had a healthy fermentation, RDWHAHB.

Thanks for the replies. I bottled it yesterday after two weeks in the fermenter. So far it tastes good. looking forward to the finished prod now.

Will try three weeks next time in the primary fermenter and see how that goes.

I should have elaborated a bit more. You're right, for the most part, on the homebrew scale, you'd be hard pressed to have a beer suffer from autolysis. I think in the craft, micro, macro brewing world, they would have to be more careful from what I've learned on the topic. Im sure that a homebrewer could find a way to abuse their beer and leave in there for 4 months and screw something up, but I wouldn't be too worried about a 5 gallon batch of beer.

The most important thing for you to do right now is get another batch in your fermenter. An empty fermenter is an offense against the beer gods.

Forgive me Brewgod for I have sinned. Its been three weeks since my last homebrew.
However im planning to brew a stout tonight and get stuck into my dark ale to make up for it.