No, I mean the temp of the beer at the time of bottling when the priming solution is introduced. Would you, for example, let a lager warm up to roughly room temperature prior to introducing the priming solution and bottling? Or does it really matter? I realize yeast activity will not begin until the yeasties are happy with the temp of the medium.
There's a huge debate about it, including something that became very contentious and was locked. I will give you MY take on it.
I use beersmith, which has a calculator for basing the amount of sugar needed to prime based on temp.. My understanding of it, is that that is TEMP AT THE TIME OF BOTTLING.
You would use less sugar the colder the beer is. I ALWAYS bottle at room temp, no matter whether the beer was cold crashed, lagered, or fermented warm. So if it's a lager, I bring it out of the cold and let it warm up for a couple of days til it's at equilibrium. Then I take a temp and run the numbers for it in beersmith.
You can bottle it right out of the chill chamber if you want, but you have to calculate the amount of sugar needed/temp of the beer at that point.
Since most of the priming sugar included in kits is premeasured at 4.5 to 5 ounces of sugar, which happens to deliver about 2-2.5 volumes of CO2 for beers at about 70 degrees...I find it way easier to figure it as close to 70 degrees as possible. Sometimes I even cheat and just measure out that amount anyway.
But often I carbed to style and and using some volume of co2 within a given range fo styles...so figuring out how much sugar I need, becomes a little more precise, and knowing the temp of the beer is more crucial.
Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YooperBrew
I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac!
Thanks for all the tips in this thread, Revvy! On Sunday I broke my auto-siphon (damn hose got stuck on so hard that it snapped the cane when I tried to pull it off. Remembering this thread, I cut piece off, heated it with a heat shrink gun, bent it to a 45 degree angle and stuck it in a drilled stopper. After some fine tuning and filing, I now have a bottling bucket dip tube.
Next bottling day will be the first time I've ever actually used the spigot on my bottling bucket. I always just used the auto-siphon.
Last edited by EvilGnome6; 10-21-2009 at 10:45 PM.
Reason: Edited for clarity
I'm a die-hard bottler and I'm always looking for ways to make my process better (this thread has been great, BTW). I had a couple of thoughts/questions to throw into the mix:
1. I know we all recommend carbing at +70F, but what's the upper limit? I bottle carb in a water bath with an aquarium heater and I can easily get my bottles to 76-78F. I've had a few batches that seem a bit over-carbed and I wonder if the temp is too high. Comments?
2. I ordered another bottling wand w/filler valve because my current one drips a bit. I'm looking at it and thinking, "I've got two of these, why can't I rig a system to fill two bottles at once? I've got two hands..." Anyone tried this?
(Bonus complaint for the day: I bought some Blue Point Toasted Lager yesterday, because I had one at a business dinner a few weeks ago and liked it (similar to a Marzen?). I got them home and realized that they are screw tops. I'm not used to getting beer I enjoy in screw-top form. So instead of building my bottle inventory, these will get recycled.)
Last edited by RunBikeBrew; 10-25-2009 at 12:51 PM.
revvy,
I constructed a bottling bucket as specified and it worked great and was much easier than trying to maintain a siphon. I accidently drilled the spigot hole too low but I was able to cut off a side of the inner nut and install super close to the bottom. Without a dip tube I get all but about 4oz.
Thanks for the ideas.
Good question re the temperature for bottling conditioning - I'd also like to know. The garage where I condition can get to 90F easily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RunBikeBrew
I'm a die-hard bottler and I'm always looking for ways to make my process better (this thread has been great, BTW). I had a couple of thoughts/questions to throw into the mix:
1. I know we all recommend carbing at +70F, but what's the upper limit? I bottle carb in a water bath with an aquarium heater and I can easily get my bottles to 76-78F. I've had a few batches that seem a bit over-carbed and I wonder if the temp is too high. Comments?
2. I ordered another bottling wand w/filler valve because my current one drips a bit. I'm looking at it and thinking, "I've got two of these, why can't I rig a system to fill two bottles at once? I've got two hands..." Anyone tried this?
(Bonus complaint for the day: I bought some Blue Point Toasted Lager yesterday, because I had one at a business dinner a few weeks ago and liked it (similar to a Marzen?). I got them home and realized that they are screw tops. I'm not used to getting beer I enjoy in screw-top form. So instead of building my bottle inventory, these will get recycled.)
1. I know we all recommend carbing at +70F, but what's the upper limit? I bottle carb in a water bath with an aquarium heater and I can easily get my bottles to 76-78F. I've had a few batches that seem a bit over-carbed and I wonder if the temp is too high. Comments?
I've recently been reading "Brew Like a Monk". In it, Stan notes that many of the Belgian Trappist Breweries bottle condition in the 78-80F range. My mid 70's sounds pretty good. I'm feeling more "Monk-ish" now.
He also points out that they do primary fermentation in about 4 days, even for high gravity beers. I haven't figured that one out yet...
When I sanitize I use sodium metabisulphate. I have always just kept it in a gardening bottle that has a mist setting. Now when you make wine, the alcohol content is pretty high and it is difficult to spoil it after fermentation, or at least that's what I've read and I've made lots of wine and never had any problems.
So, when I bottle I spray in the sanitizer and then rinse it out, and let it dry. After that I line them up and put a length of saran wrap over the tops to keep any air out until I bottle (next day or whatever). Is there a reason that you shouldn't rinse the sanitizer out? Would that affect the taste/quality, and is it sodium metabisulphate the wrong sanitizer to use? I guess this is the part that has piqued my curiosity... when I bottle I just use the autosiphon and have a clip about 6" from the bottom.... I have the timing down . I put the wine or beer in a clean/sanitized primary fermenter and put it on the table with a rubbermaid tote under it, which provides enough head difference to keep a good siphon going while I sit in my chair and watch a movie.
. I put the wine or beer in a clean/sanitized primary fermenter and put it on the table with a rubbermaid tote under it, which provides enough head difference to keep a good siphon going while I sit in my chair and watch a movie.
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