bottling question

I bottled my first batch Wednesday and I was wondering if I should be seeing any kind of bubbles or anything in the bottles. I have been keeping the temp at 68 to 70 degrees.

Did you prime the using priming sugar according to instructions? You should not be seeing bubbles unless you bump the bottles. Give them at least 2 weeks before opening one to test the carbonation level. Contrary to what most beer ingredient kit instructions say, you should wait at least 4-6 weeks before drinking your beer. Otherwise it will have a "green" harsh taste compared to what it will be like after more time!

I know it's hard to resist drinking it too soon!

Most new brewers make the following 3 mistakes:

1. Ferment too warm (fermenting beer creates heat!)

2. Ferment too short (your beer needs at least 14-21 days to ferment out and then clean up itself before you bottle!)

3. Drink their beer too soon! (Green beer)

I'll mostly agree with Jayhem - no bubbles is normal. Except I would disagree with the two week thing.

This beer might be drinkable in two weeks - but the typical baseline for normal gravity beers is three weeks at seventy degrees F for proper bottle carbonation. Higher gravity beers or cooler temps can extend this time.

I don't see bubbles until I open a bottle, and usually don't have much carbonation to speak of until a MINIMUM of 1 week (but it's very low carbonation). At 2 weeks it much better carbonation. At 4-6 weeks it's good carbonation and flavors have melded together much better.

The minimum amount of time to bottle carbonate is 3 weeks at 70F. Bigger beers will take longer. Depending on how much sugar you used to prime with, you could have either the right amount, too little or far too much carbonation. IMO/IME, the 5oz bag included with virtually ALL kits is rarely the correct amount. More often it's more than you actually need.

Once you've gone 3 weeks at 70F, chill a bottle for at least 5 days, with 7 days being a good minimum, and 14 days being even better. IF the carbonation is right, start more chilling in the fridge.

This is posted so many times, each month, it's pretty disgusting.

It fermented for 3 weeks before bottling. Checked the FG for 3 days, got the same reading all 3 days. Used the priming sugar that came with the kit. Instuctions says to let it set for 2 or 3 weeks at the temp I have it at. Everything should be OK. Sorry for the disgusting post.

oldwinemaker said:

It fermented for 3 weeks before bottling. Checked the FG for 3 days, got the same reading all 3 days. Used the priming sugar that came with the kit. Instuctions says to let it set for 2 or 3 weeks at the temp I have it at. Everything should be OK. Sorry for the disgusting post.

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Kits are notorious for providing bad/false/outdated information. Depending on what the brew is, the provided pack of sugar could very well be far too much. This is why there are several carbonation calculation sites/tools readily available.

IMO, dump the instructions after it has you pitch the yeast. Give the bottles at least three weeks at 70F before you chill any for a week to test. If it's cooler than 70F, give it longer. IME, 2 weeks is not enough time for carbonation to be where it should be. Although with the amount you used, you could be looking at very much over-carbonated bottles of beer.

I've always used 4-5 oz of table sugar to prime my 5-5.5 gallon batches and definitely have well carbonated beer but have not had one gush or bomb in over 1,800 bottles so far. :knocksonwood: