detlion1643 said:
Well as a first timer, made my first 5 gals last night, and it's starting to ferment already. Saw some bubbles on my airlock already, nothing fast yet. I don't like running my ac real low, and since I'm on a 1 story home, I put the carboy in my closest. Ambient temps hover around 73ish in there. It's in a darker corner, so I'm hoping if it raises up to around 78ish I'll still be ok leaving it there for about 4 weeks.
Been reading up on how to siphon/bottle it out but got a few quick questions. How important is a bottling bucket? I've read it's ok to bottle it out of primary, so I assume I should just go get an autosiphon with something else from the lhbs? I just gotta make sure not to get the bottom or top if anything is there correct? And, not carbing some beer bottles with this wine is ok? I'm gonna let it sit for 3 weeks in bottles, then fridge it for a week, hoping it's ready for a birthday party!
A bottling bucket is not absolutely necessary, but it makes things a whole lot easier and helps ensure the priming sugar is fully mixed in. Bottling with an autosiphon almost requires two people in my experience... you can probably get it done by yourself, but it's still a pain, and if you don't have the siphon and bottling wand clips to hold them in place, you pretty much need a partner.
I actually use my beer kettle to bottle. The concept is almost identical to Revvy's bottling bucket sticky, but doesn't require a bottling bucket to take up space and can be almost *sterilized* by boiling water in it first. I made a thread about it a while back... searching bottling kettle might bring it up, if you're interested.
Whatever you choose, I don't recommend bottling with an autosiphon - it was such a pain that it was the only thing about brewing I decidedly disliked and made bottling a total chore.
That temperature is a bit too warm in my experience. It'll still be good and drinkable, just not quite as good as it could be... lower temp would make the final product taste cleaner and smoother (i.e. not harsh). I'd try to keep the *fermentation* temp under 70-72 if you could; if you can only control ambient temp, that means no higher than the low 60's. If you're concerned about energy usage, it mostly matters during just the first 4-7 days. After that, warmer temps only affect the finished product slightly, if at all.
And yes, you can leave some of it flat. In fact, some people prefer it, though most here seem to prefer carbonation. I personally prefer it sparkling (highly carbonated), sometimes exceeding 5 volumes, though I bottle in champagne bottles. If you use standard beer bottles, don't carbonate higher than 3 volumes... they can explode. Champagne bottles can take much more pressure, though some of the thick Belgian bottles and some German Hefe bottles (the tall and slender 500ml ones) can take 4 volumes... the latter generally uses caps instead of corks, though some of the good Belgian ones do too (particularly the small, stubby ones). PET bottles (i.e. plastic soda bottles) can take more carbonation than you could possibly want.