no gravity reading when to bottle

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

i4ourgot

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
308
Reaction score
12
Location
Coloma
My buddy not on HBT just asked me when to bottle his beer. Its sitting in 65F temps and he only has one carboy so he wants to bottle from the carboy and he brewed a pale ale. I have been kegging for to long and don't know what to tell him without a gravity reading. Its in a carboy and right now it is at high Krausen. Also how much priming sugar should he add and should he cold crash before he bottles or would this make the yeast fall asleep and not carbonate the bottles.
 
??? Gravity readings should be the same to keg as they are to bottle... You should make sure FG has been reached in either case. It is possible, but definitely not the easiest or preferable method to bottle from a primary fermenter. To do so, he will need to add his priming sugar directly to the bottles and not the carboy. He can cold crash for 24 to 48 hours to clear the beer as well as firm up the trub/yeast cake without worries.
If it was my friend, I would first tell him to take gravity readings several days apart to make sure FG has been reached, then go buy a bucket ($5 from HD if a 5gal would be enough for him).
 
The yeast cake hasn't droped so it's in the first week or stalled. Tell him to bring it inside and wait two weeks. check the FG and make sure it has about bottomed out over 3 days.
 
Well FG wouldn't matter if he had an sg or not.
You'd only need the SG if you wanted to figure out ABV or efficiency.
I'd recommend him getting a hydrometer. But that being said without one I'd wait at least 3weeks probably 4 if I didn't have a hydrometer to make sure I wasn't making bottle bombs. And even then I think I'd break down and get a hydrometer to BE sure it was done fermenting. I rather spend a few bucks than worry about glass shrapnel flying around my basement. As for how much sugar when I bottled I think I used a sugar cube per 16oz bottle with good results. Ideally he'd want to batch prime but with only the one vessel he won't want to stir in the sugar mixture as that would stir up the yeast/trub on the bottom of the fermenter.
 
Back
Top