did i wait too long before bottling???

i have been a kegger since day 1... kegging about 30 double batches so far.

i recently tried bottling with great success! so i decided to try again....

and here's my dilema:

i ran out of co2 for pressurizing my keg, and decided to bottle the batch that was presently in the carboy.

this is a coopers real ale, and spent 6 days in the primary bucket, then another 4-5 weeks in a carboy... soooo, i basically bottled it almost 6 weeks after the initial brewing....

when bottling, i added the recomended amount of priming sugar and sealed them up just as before.

my problem is, i dont see any signs of reaction in the bottle after 3 days.... i think i should start seeing some sediment by now. but i dont.. and one of my bottles is clear, so i have a good look at it.

should i be alarmed???? should i pour them all back into a carboy, re yeast it and wait another week before rebottling????? or is there a chance they will still pressure up? they are stored at a temp of 18 degrees.

thanx in advance,

shnitzel.

I have bottled begians that have been sitting for 6+ months. No worries RDWAHAHB

I'm going to have to go with "RDWHAHB"

It's only been 3 days, and most of the time I barely notice any sediment in the bottom of my bottles. But I tend to ignore them until the 2 week mark.

Put those things on a shelf for at least another week, then crack a sacrificial beer. If you get a hiss, your on track. Put it back on the shelf for another week or two, then enjoy.

If you don't get a hiss, you have permission to panic.

No worries RDWAHAHB

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Argh! SporkD2 beat me to it

Bring them up to 22 or so and wait a few weeks. Depending upon the amount of priming sugar you used you may see that sooner than later... sometimes it is very thin, other times not so much. But you need two good weeks, imho... I start tasting my bottles in 1 week, I carb between 1.8 and 2.5 volumes depending upon what I'm attempting to brew. After one week I usually have very little carbonation but after two weeks I'm doing much better. Three weeks plus and the beer has been conditioned enough to be just right, for most short to medium conditioning styles.

I'll chime in with the obligatory "they are ruined. Send them to me and I will properly dispose of them" post

I'll split the differences of the responses to be fair:

They may be ruined so if you want to send half of them to me I can take care of them and get them off of your hands.

Keep the other half of the batch and leave them alone for at least 2-3 weeks before judging the carbonation level on them. 3 days is not enough time to evaluate.

I never see anything going on in the bottles no bubbles or anything they always carb up so dont worry just keep them around 70deg.

ahhh, sweeeet! thank you soo much... thats what i figured "relax, and have a home brew!" ha ha ha... so i am.... got about 1/2 a keg of bitter ale to finish before i dig into the "not so questionable" bottles....

ill try to post again in a few days, to summarize whether they pressured up or not. till then, i wont worry about it.

shnitz

shnitzel said:

ahhh, sweeeet! thank you soo much... thats what i figured "relax, and have a home brew!" ha ha ha... so i am.... got about 1/2 a keg of bitter ale to finish before i dig into the "not so questionable" bottles....

ill try to post again in a few days, to summarize whether they pressured up or not. till then, i wont worry about it.

shnitz

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Don't forget to bring them up to 21-22C... taste one each week for the next 2-3

You have been kegging too long. Carbonation, as Revvy preaches, takes at least 3 weeks for a normal 1.040 brew at 70 degrees. Three days is way to early. If you are that interested, you can open a beer at the 1,2 and 3 week intervals to see how the beer changes. I now wait 3 weeks before opening my first.

shnitzel said:

my problem is, i dont see any signs of reaction in the bottle after 3 days.... i think i should start seeing some sediment by now. but i dont.. and one of my bottles is clear, so i have a good look at it.

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With 5 weeks in settling and careful racking, you probably left almost all of the sediment behind in the carboy. That's a good thing! More likely than not your beer will carbonate just fine and in the end you'll have a nice clear brew with very little sediment in the bottle. Just give it some time.

ok, so to update.......

i saw that i asked a question that SEVERAL other newbies asked the same day... ha ha ha......... to apologize, this isn't my style at all! ha ha! ive built my own flatbed CNC router, soldered together my own EFI system for a turbo car, blah blah.... all from internet research!!! sooo im soooooo appreciative of your help!

i warmed up my beers for a few days and they started to pressure up more.... so yup, all your beers are in the mail. i hope i got your adresses right! ah ha.

i would like to clarify my thoughts..... sooo, the longer in the carboy, the more and more yeast dies / settles... but it takes a looooooong time for all the yeast to die... soo, say i leave the beer in the carboy for an overextended period of time... and then when bottling, i prime it... there is a low % culture of yeast, and it may take longer to carbonate in the bottle???? than say if i bottled it straight out of the primary bucket within 6 days????

and thanx again, ive been reading this forum for years now, and since have helped a dozen others get brewing!

shnitz

shnitzel said:

should i be alarmed?

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If this bugs you in the future, fill one plastic 'sentinel bottle' along with the glass; an old pepsi bottle works. That way you can feel it every once in a while to check the pressure inside; you don't have to guess at the yeast layer at the bottom.

And they're really cheap.