My 1st Brew is an Irish Red Extract kit from MoreBeer. I input it into hopville: http://hopville.com/recipe/1672038
Brew day was smooth and everything went fine.
Fermentation was good, and after about a week it had dropped from 1.058 to 1.022. I left it in the primary, and will continue to do so.
That being said, at now 16 days in I took another gravity, and it has barely moved: 1.021 now. I have checked the hydrometer and it reads 1.000 on RO Water.
I came in higher on OG than the kit suggested (1.046-1.050 on the instructions, 1.056 according to hopville). EDIT: Kit does not give a FG target, but has a 4.5% ABV, which I am already significantly over. Hopville says 1.014-1.017.
OK, so that aside - I want to brew again Saturday, which means I will need my carboy back. So I would like to get my Irish red bottled off on Thursday/Friday (EDIT:assuming Gravity stays steady), which is a couple days earlier than the "3-weeks", but I also would like to cold-crash before bottling.
How long do I need to have the carboy in the fridge (33-35 F) for it to get down to temp and show some benefit from the cold crash?
How much different on the beer is the bulk aging vs bottled aging? (ie: if instead of 3 weeks+3 weeks I end up with 2.5 + 3.5 - is there a noticeable difference?)
Thanks,
Ray
Brew day was smooth and everything went fine.
Fermentation was good, and after about a week it had dropped from 1.058 to 1.022. I left it in the primary, and will continue to do so.
That being said, at now 16 days in I took another gravity, and it has barely moved: 1.021 now. I have checked the hydrometer and it reads 1.000 on RO Water.
I came in higher on OG than the kit suggested (1.046-1.050 on the instructions, 1.056 according to hopville). EDIT: Kit does not give a FG target, but has a 4.5% ABV, which I am already significantly over. Hopville says 1.014-1.017.
OK, so that aside - I want to brew again Saturday, which means I will need my carboy back. So I would like to get my Irish red bottled off on Thursday/Friday (EDIT:assuming Gravity stays steady), which is a couple days earlier than the "3-weeks", but I also would like to cold-crash before bottling.
How long do I need to have the carboy in the fridge (33-35 F) for it to get down to temp and show some benefit from the cold crash?
How much different on the beer is the bulk aging vs bottled aging? (ie: if instead of 3 weeks+3 weeks I end up with 2.5 + 3.5 - is there a noticeable difference?)
Thanks,
Ray