barkscruff

Recipes 

I live in Rockaway Beach NY which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy last week. I had a batch of Midwest Java Stout in my secondary and was planning on bottling once I had a few more empties...Then the storm hit.

Since we have no heat or electricity, the temperature of the beer has dropped to about 50 degrees. Since I have been busy helping clean up, I still haven't been able to deal with the beer.

Is there any chance to save this beer? I had been looking forward to bottling it and would like to salvage if possible. I can probably take the bucket out of there an have a buddy bottle for me. It was in primary for 2 weeks and its been in the secondary now for 3.5 weeks with the cold brewed coffee.

Thanks

Hopper5000

Recipes 

If it's in secondary you can leave it for a long time with no problems. All it's really doing now is aging and mellowing out. You can think of it like being in a really big bottle (without it carbonating obviously). I would just focus on you clean up and don't really worry about it. Stouts (depending on their %) are usualy good for a few months if not a year. I said depending on the % because usually the higher the % the longer it will last. Whats your ABV?

I would consider throwing in some more yes when you bottle just to make sure it carbs up. You could rehydrate a pack of S04 and throw it in since it's highly flocculant and will drop out.

Hope your recovery is going ok. BTW, you should check out disasterassistance.gov if you have not already to see what programs are available to you.

Hopper5000

Recipes 

The temp part isn't really an issue unless it freezes which may crack the carboy and kill the yeast in there. Lots of people condition cold like that with no issues. It might even help the clarity of your beer since it will cause more yeast and sediment to drop out of suspension.

barkscruff

Recipes 

Thanks for the feedback, should I bring the beer up in temp before bottling? I know it seems strange to be worrying about beer at this point but its a nice distraction.

RainyDay

Recipes 

You don't need to, just make sure you note the temp in a priming calculator to make sure you're accounting for already dissolved CO2. The colder it is, the less sugar you need.

Yooper

Recipes 

That's not so. The dissolved CO2 calculation depends on the temperature during fermentation or after, and the highest temperature that it reached. The reason is this- no more co2 is produced once fermentation ends, so even if you get the beer super cold it's not going to have more co2 in it than it did when it was warmer.

Don't worry about the temperature- you can bottle it cold and then let it sit at room temperature, using .75 ounces of corn sugar per finished gallon.

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