Whitey wrote:It depends
After you hit your terminal gravity - as in you're not losing anymore gravity points, even if you give it several days - the yeast will clean up after themselves, taking care of some of the off flavors & by products of fermentation. Batch aging can benefit from that.
On the flip side, it really depends on how well you cleaned & sanitized the fermenter. If you're using good cleaning/sanitizing products, using them properly & effectively you can let it sit for quite a while with no ill effect. Another thing is going to be your pitch rate. If you pitched too low, it will affect the fermentation, but by this stage that's too late to do anything about. If you pitched too heavy, you can have some other problems with extended batch aging.
So, it really depends. Let the fermentation finish up, make 100% sure it's finished up & then give it a handful more days to let the yeast do it's thing. You'll eventually hit a point of diminishing returns, even if 'conditions are perfect', so go ahead & get it out of there at that point. The other bonus is the sooner you get it out of there, the sooner you'll be drinking it, having arguments with your dog, telling random strangers that you love them & texting Spidey at 3am. All of which are good things in my book.
Lee
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BN Army // 13th Mountain Division