EvilDeadAsh
Well-Known Member
New member of HBT! This site has been awesome in terms of info and making this whole process a little less daunting, great community here!
I brewed my first batch of beer last Thursday, a kit provided by my LBHS. It is described as a "Traditional malty Dusseldorf style Copper Ale"
I've read the "should i use a secondary" threads, as well as the FAQs. I understand at this point that the secondary is largely optional. I understand the secondary will generally only be needed if I'm dry hopping, adding fruit or something along those lines, as well as helping to increase clarity.
We're having some folks over the first weekend of September at which time I was hoping to debut my (hopefully not terrible) first homebrew.
My question is this - is it more important to bottle condition for longer?
In other words, I've read a mantra in the FAQs as "21 days at 70 degrees" for bottling. If I do that, I would bottle on Aug 9, giving me 3 full weeks to the 30th before I serve this beer to my houseguests.
Assuming fermentation is complete based on my hydro readings...
Should I just leave it in the primary until the 9th, or would it make sense to move it to the secondary for a week before bottling? My general thinking here is if it's only going to sit in the secondary for a week, it likely isn't going to clear up enough for it to be worth doing, and I would only risk possibly infecting or otherwise introducing oxygen to my brew.
My followup question would then be if I do go straight to the bottle from my primary fermentation bucket, how do I add the priming solution? Will it be sufficiently mixed in if I just pour it in the top? From what I have read, unless I have misunderstood, I don't want to be churning the beer too much before it is ready.
I brewed my first batch of beer last Thursday, a kit provided by my LBHS. It is described as a "Traditional malty Dusseldorf style Copper Ale"
I've read the "should i use a secondary" threads, as well as the FAQs. I understand at this point that the secondary is largely optional. I understand the secondary will generally only be needed if I'm dry hopping, adding fruit or something along those lines, as well as helping to increase clarity.
We're having some folks over the first weekend of September at which time I was hoping to debut my (hopefully not terrible) first homebrew.
My question is this - is it more important to bottle condition for longer?
In other words, I've read a mantra in the FAQs as "21 days at 70 degrees" for bottling. If I do that, I would bottle on Aug 9, giving me 3 full weeks to the 30th before I serve this beer to my houseguests.
Assuming fermentation is complete based on my hydro readings...
Should I just leave it in the primary until the 9th, or would it make sense to move it to the secondary for a week before bottling? My general thinking here is if it's only going to sit in the secondary for a week, it likely isn't going to clear up enough for it to be worth doing, and I would only risk possibly infecting or otherwise introducing oxygen to my brew.
My followup question would then be if I do go straight to the bottle from my primary fermentation bucket, how do I add the priming solution? Will it be sufficiently mixed in if I just pour it in the top? From what I have read, unless I have misunderstood, I don't want to be churning the beer too much before it is ready.