Time to bottle?

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mkelley18

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Brewing an IPA - my OG was 1.050 and it was in my primary for just over 4 days and when I transitioned to my secondary carboy my second gravity reading was 1.011. Should I let it sit in the carboy any longer or should I start to bottle. Thanks for any advice.
 
LOnger!!!! Those yeast do more than just make alcohol. they clean up a lot of other byproducts if you give them time to.
 
why did you transer to secondary so early? Let the yeast clean up but if you are in a hurry you might get away with bottling with less priming sugar. Is it really an emergency though? RDWHAHB
 
You should let the beer ferment a minimum of 2 weeks to let the yeast finish up all of the fermentables. Then if gravity is stable, bottle.
 
If I let it sit longer, do I run the risk of increasing the alcohol content too high? It's currently at 1.011. My OG was 1.05. Thanks.
 
At this point, the yeast will ferment whatever is there. Either in primary, secondary or in the bottle. The worst thing you can do is to bottle before the yeast is done - then you are asking for bottle bombs because if the yeast is not done, it will finish in the bottle.

It is too late to alter your FG unless you filter out the yeast and keg or filter and use a less attenuative yeast to bottle ferment.
 
Don't listen to scaredy cats on here. Bottle now and include one PET soft drinks bottle. That acts as a pressure indicator for you. do you like your beer neat flat and gasless or do you like loads of fizz - that is important for your choice.
 
Don't listen to scaredy cats on here. Bottle now and include one PET soft drinks bottle. That acts as a pressure indicator for you. do you like your beer neat flat and gasless or do you like loads of fizz - that is important for your choice.

Yes, that is a way to avoid bottle bombs... by watching a bottle expand and then crash cooling any bottles that are left at room temp before the pressure gets too high.

I have no experience with this but it seems like guesswork at best if you are shooting for a specific carbonation level. You also need a lot of refrigerator space for when its time to rapidly crash cool the remaining bottles.
 
Don't listen to scaredy cats on here. Bottle now and include one PET soft drinks bottle. That acts as a pressure indicator for you. do you like your beer neat flat and gasless or do you like loads of fizz - that is important for your choice.

At 1.011 it is pretty much done so you can bottle if you want. It has nothing to do with being a 'scardey cat' but has everything to do with allowing the yeast to clean up after itself. At four days the beer was probabily still very cloudy. Do you want all of that suspended matter in your bottles? Probabily not. So let the beer clear and the yeast will tidy up during that time as well. Then prime to whatever carbonation volume you wish and bottle.:mug:
 
Its so hard to get a brew going and then wait 2-6 weeks to bottle. But that's what its going to take to get better beer. Give 2-4 weeks on primary yeast. Secondary if it needs more than 3.5-4 weeks for a really big beer, or if you want to dry hop, add fruit, etc.
 
Don't listen to scaredy cats on here. Bottle now and include one PET soft drinks bottle. That acts as a pressure indicator for you. do you like your beer neat flat and gasless or do you like loads of fizz - that is important for your choice.

I think you are describing a way to tell the amount of carbonation when fermentation has stopped, right?
In his case it is probably done.. If not, with this method, the chances are that you won't be home to cold stop the beer if it is going to explode.

If you bottle before fermentation has ended BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID....:D
 
At 1.011 it is pretty much done so you can bottle if you want. It has nothing to do with being a 'scardey cat' but has everything to do with allowing the yeast to clean up after itself. At four days the beer was probabily still very cloudy. Do you want all of that suspended matter in your bottles? Probabily not. So let the beer clear and the yeast will tidy up during that time as well. Then prime to whatever carbonation volume you wish and bottle.:mug:



+1. Carbonation and drinking green beer are different subjects. The yeast needs time to finish before bottling, to clean up byproducts and mature the beer.
 
I doubt that you could get a sound bottle to explode if you bottle within .010 of final gravity. If I thought bottles were too pressurised, I would slightly release the crown cap, and when they stopped fizzing fit new crown caps, decanting so that each bottle was filled properly. The pressure actually stops the CO2 formation process so it is self limiting. I repeat what I have said here before, it is possible to judge by eye alone when it is right to bottle, my present brew is on day 3, and I expect to bottle on day 5. Yes, the PET bottle is a safety device, a pressure indicatopr for the batch.
 
I doubt that you could get a sound bottle to explode if you bottle within .010 of final gravity. If I thought bottles were too pressurised, I would slightly release the crown cap, and when they stopped fizzing fit new crown caps, decanting so that each bottle was filled properly. The pressure actually stops the CO2 formation process so it is self limiting. I repeat what I have said here before, it is possible to judge by eye alone when it is right to bottle, my present brew is on day 3, and I expect to bottle on day 5. Yes, the PET bottle is a safety device, a pressure indicatopr for the batch.

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. You seem to indicate that you think CO2 formation is self-limiting but that you also use a PET bottle as a safety device? Why the need for a safety device if the process is self-limiting? Also, when you uncap and recap bottles, you have no idea what level of carbonation you will end-up with. Everyone is different but I am as precise as I can be with regard to levels of carbonation. Carbonation level affects beer in a very big way.

Also, what do you mean when you say that you can judge by eye when a beer is ready to bottle? You can not judge by eye when a beer is finished fermenting, let alone when it is done conditioning. So what do you mean when you say that you can tell by eye that it is ready to be bottled? What do you think it is that tells you it is ready?

With regard to CO2 being self-limiting, I saw a post of yours recently about trying to apply chemical principles to CO2 formation. It seemed as though you were trying to say that if CO2 pressure builds, there will be a decrease and eventual end to CO2 formation. Am I interpreting this correctly? If I am, IMO this equilibrium is never reached - because of limitations related to the maximum pressure that the bottle can maintain prior to breaking as well as significantly lower CO2 pressure in the beer (as opposed to in the headspace) because the CO2 pressure in liquid is significantly lower than in the headspace.

Anyway, maybe I'm interpreting you incorrectly but you seem to be saying that bottle bombs are almost impossible. If I am misinterpreting you, I apologize. If I am interpreting you correctly, I do not agree and I think the OP should understand the generally accepted principles of how bottle bombs can occur.
 
I doubt that you could get a sound bottle to explode if you bottle within .010 of final gravity. If I thought bottles were too pressurised, I would slightly release the crown cap, and when they stopped fizzing fit new crown caps, decanting so that each bottle was filled properly. The pressure actually stops the CO2 formation process so it is self limiting. I repeat what I have said here before, it is possible to judge by eye alone when it is right to bottle, my present brew is on day 3, and I expect to bottle on day 5. Yes, the PET bottle is a safety device, a pressure indicatopr for the batch.

If you give the yeast a proper amount of time to eat all the fermentables and you bottle when gravity is reached there is no need for a 'saftey device'.
I personaly wouldnt want to worry if the bottles were too pressurised and have to use twice the ammount of caps because I had to open every one to let the pressure off.
Also, the yeast will continue to make Co2 until the fermentables are gone, even if it is in a pressurised bottle.
 
For total clarity I bottle when there is no foam on top of the beer and the beer is showing signs of clearing in the top few inches. I use a PET bottle partly to check in bottle pressure and partly because it halves the bottling time if you use PET bottles. I also use 3 litre PET bottles. I have been brewing for 40 years and the only bottle explosion I had was a St Peters Beer bottle, these are green glass, light weight and medicine bottle shape and so not the right design for beer bottles. Finally if my beer is too carbonated I pour it from jug to jug until it is to my taste.
 
For total clarity I bottle when there is no foam on top of the beer and the beer is showing signs of clearing in the top few inches. I use a PET bottle partly to check in bottle pressure and partly because it halves the bottling time if you use PET bottles. I also use 3 litre PET bottles. I have been brewing for 40 years and the only bottle explosion I had was a St Peters Beer bottle, these are green glass, light weight and medicine bottle shape and so not the right design for beer bottles. Finally if my beer is too carbonated I pour it from jug to jug until it is to my taste.


What you have is a good feel for the process because you have been brewing so long and you have your own special processes that are not the norm. ( 40 years really? It hasn't even been legal that long) I don't think your processes would be very friendly to the average new brewer and as others have previously said carbonation level is a different discussion than beer finish is and his beer is not done.
 
I doubt that you could get a sound bottle to explode if you bottle within .010 of final gravity. If I thought bottles were too pressurised, I would slightly release the crown cap, and when they stopped fizzing fit new crown caps, decanting so that each bottle was filled properly. The pressure actually stops the CO2 formation process so it is self limiting. I repeat what I have said here before, it is possible to judge by eye alone when it is right to bottle, my present brew is on day 3, and I expect to bottle on day 5. Yes, the PET bottle is a safety device, a pressure indicatopr for the batch.

If you are bottling after 5 days you are extremely lucky that you have not created bottle bombs. Either that or you have to release pressure most of the time. It seems to me to be a big bother to recap rather than waiting for fermentation to end. My last two batches didn't stop active fermentation until around 10 days!!!
 
I really see no point to bottling after only five days. Even if the bottles do not explode, the beer will be green. In doing so, you run the risk that the yeast never has a chance to clean up the beer. A much better and potentially safer choice is to buy another carboy and start brewing another batch. You will hear many people on this forum say the best beer of the batch was the last one. Sometimes its better to be patient.
 
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