Kuhndog

Recipes 

I need some assistance from folks that have made the Brewer's Best English Brown Ale. It's almost Wednesday Nov 23 ( a couple hrs away EST). I'll be out of town from Dec 3-10th with no one able to do anything in terms of siphoning/racking/bottling. I was planning on doing a secondary with it. I'm very new to the whole process but wanted to know if I had enough time to do the primary and then wait how many days to put it in the secondary. The instructions don't really talk about a secondary being used. So here are my possible scenarios and I would need help on the number of days on each step of the scenario. Thank you in advance.


Scenario 1 (no secondary)
Primary - ? days and then bottle
Bottle Condition - for how many weeks?

Scenario 2 (in secondary and bottled before Dec 3rd)
Primary - ? days and then siphon into secondary
Secondary - ? days and then bottle before I leave
Bottle Condition - for how many weeks?

Scenario 3 (in secondary until after return from vacation, Dec 10th)
Primary - ? days and then siphon into secondary
Secondary - keep in until return on Dec 10th/11th
Bottle Condition - for how many weeks?

It basically comes down to what can I do before the vacation week from Dec 3-10th. Do I even want to use a secondary...do I just primary for 5-7 days or so then bottle and let it sit until mid Dec? Or do I primary, secondary, and then bottle the day before I go? Or do I primary, then secondary until I get back on the 10th/11th and then bottle?

BeerG0ggles

Recipes 

Ok, i did not read each question in detail. In general, don't sweat it. As long as things are sanitary and temperatures are even it will be fine. After that, you are getting into religion territory; to secondary or not, how long before bottling, and so on. There really is no all encompassing "right" answer. I'd say just leave it tucked away in your primary for a few weeks and bottle when you get back. If you need more time, rack it over to a secondary and let it sit. More fermenting time is generally better than less, AEBE

Edit: I have found three weeks to be the minimum time for bottle conditioning. Two is passable, 3+ is preferable. Let's call 6 weeks ideal, but your mileage may vary,

Enjoy

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llamabox

Recipes 

Looks like you and I are on the same page.
I brewed this kit on 11/19/11
Primary for 16days, cold crash for 1 day in fridge, bottled and had decent carb in a week and tastes pretty damn good. Can't wait to see what it turns into in a month.

I agree with BG on leaving it in primary for extended periods, but that point is mute now as I see you should have returned home last night.

Can't wait to hear your impressions on it.

Kuhndog

Recipes 

What's a cold crash?

I went ahead and did it on 12/1...so it's been 11 days in the primary. I'll probably let it in there until this Sat. - Dec 17th. Then I was thinking of putting it either in a secondary or bottling it.

I will have to say I may have goofed on it...my OG was like 1.055+. I may have let the malt steep longer than 20 mins. I used a 5 gallon pot which had about 4.5 gallons of water in it...brought the temp up to 170 with the malt in a bag...removed the bag and brought the temp up to boiling before adding the LME and DME and the 1st of the hops. I can tell it's a hoppy brown ale for sure. My wife may like it more than me because she's a hophead....but I'm definitely not. I didn't think I would get that kind of hop utilization out of 3.5 gallons or so...(after boil and the malt absorbing a fair amt of water).

As to the OG - I'm thinking it was because of the malt steeping so long - is that right?

It smells good...but it's on the lower end of the fermentation temp - I let the house sit at 65 degrees while we were gone...it's little cooler on the floor like 63-64....I'm excited but fearful....do you think I should just bottle on Sat and let it sit until Jan 1st or so?