Bottling extra young

Outbred · 07-01-2009, 10:54 PM

So brewed a rather light hefeweizen yesterday (1030 OG) and it was fermenting vigorously by midnight.

This morning at 6am the airlock was still plinking away at about the same pace.

When I got home at 330, fermentation had stopped.

I checked the gravity and it came in at 1012.

I'm tempted to bottle it right now to keep as much yeast in solution as possible.

Has anyone ever bottled one so soon after the apparent end of fermentation?

Thanks in advance.

**Yuri_Rage** · 07-01-2009, 11:03 PM

What if the wort was accidentally more fermentable than intended and will finish at 1.006? You're asking for bottle bombs.

Give it at least 3 additional days for the SG to stabilize. Besides, hefeweizen should have some yeast in it, but it doesn't need to be chewy!

carnevoodoo · 07-01-2009, 11:09 PM

Plus, you need to give it time to clean up or you'll run the risk of things like diacetyl.

**Revvy** · 07-01-2009, 11:10 PM

I know you are in a hurry, but do yourself a favor, and go buy some beer. Don't be so quick to rush a beer, even a heffeweizen benefits from letting the yeast do their thing...fermenting isn't the only thing they do, they actually then go back and clean up the by products of fermentation, which lead to off flavors.

You want a beer that actually tastes good, don't you?

You're not making koolaid here, you are dealing with a living thing, and it has it's own timeframe....AND 24 hours is NOT it.

Give it a week at least.

Outbred · 07-01-2009, 11:50 PM

Thanks for the quick feedback.

Definitely going to let it sit for a bit.

Fortunately I won't need to buy any beer, got the 4 previous batches to work through.

The reason I'm in a rush on this particular one is that I promised it for a BBQ and the date got bumped to 2 weeks earlier so I'm in a bind to get this thing carbonated.

I would just sub in one of my others, but I stupidly told everyone exactly what kind of beer to expect and they may not be beer genius's but they can tell a hefe from a porter ;-).

This was my second time using s-33 and I picked it specifically because it fermented like it was going out of style on one of my previous batches. Interesting that rocket-fermentation seems to be an intrinsic property of this yeast.

Good brewing.

**Revvy** · 07-01-2009, 11:53 PM

They'll get over it....It does noone any good, whether they are knowlegable about homebrew or just like MBC's to serve them green, or sub par beers.

Even a Hef, if you are bottling, would take four weeks....

If you are serving green, yeasty, and nasty tasting beer to people who have never tasted homebrew then they won't understand..what it's supposed to taste like....

They will think that EITHER you suck as a brewer, ALL HOMEBREW SUCKS (and you'll prolly go blind anyway) or those BMC commercials were right, anything other than fizzy yellow beer, especially homebrew taste like a$$, and we should stick to bud light..."THat's what TV says, so it must be true, right?"

You won't be a great ambassador to the world of homebrewing beer you tried to rush through....and saying "Heh, it's just green, and not fully carbed yet, it will get better with time, really won't fly to someone who drinks bud with their born on dates."

We get variations of this all the time, someone wanting to rush the process so people at a party or gathering can taste the beer....And we usually tell them the same thing...BUY BEER, or bing something else...they will survive, but your cred as a brewer may NOT if you serve them green beer.

smiths9312 · 07-02-2009, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnevoodoo

Plus, you need to give it time to clean up or you'll run the risk of things like diacetyl.

How do you risk diacetyl? The yeast doesn't die because you bottle it. It's in there and will clean up by-products in the bottle almost as fast as in the carboy.

I've had new beer that was at its peak 14 days from the brew date. I've also had beer that wasn't. For the beer that wasn't, I just waited longer.

That said, I haven't bottled 2 days after brew either. I would let it go at least another couple of days before bottling.

**Yooper** · 07-02-2009, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smiths9312

How do you risk diacetyl? The yeast doesn't die because you bottle it. It's in there and will clean up by-products in the bottle almost as fast as in the carboy.

No, in my experience, it won't. The more yeast there is, the easier time they have of cleaning up diacetyl. Especially when bottling, it'll take longer. Because the yeast will first consume all of the priming sugar, and then begin looking for other foods. Diacetyl will be the last item on their agenda. Plus, once it's racked, you're removing much of the yeast besides. So, you'd have less yeast to consume the diacetyl plus more fermentables for the yeast to ferment. I've had bottled beers that had diacetyl in them months later, because I didn't do a diacetyl rest at the end of primary. Trust me, diacetyl is best cleaned up in the primary.