When brewing beer how long can you wait before bottleing?

It depends on what your making. If there are a lot of fermentables you want to give the yeast time to do its job. I would say the minimum is a week but you could let the wort ferment for 2 to 3 weeks for a normal 5% alc/vol beer and it should be fine (Watch the bubbles from the yeast, when they die down and the surface of the wort is calm then the yeast is done working.) If your doing a stronger alc/vol beer then you will need to let the wort ferment longer and probably need a stronger yeast.