Bottling Day

I bottled my Palilalia IPA today after three weeks in the fermenter. I kept the fermenter in the basement where temperatures were in the low to mid-70s. I got lots of feedback here to be wary of brewing an IPA at those temperatures but I really wanted to do it. And by the time I got the advice, it was too late.

Racking to the bottling bucket, bottling and adding dextrose in boiled water seemed to go fine. I ended up with 44 bottles. The OG was 1.063 and the final gravity was 1.015 which was in the range of the suggestion in the original recipe. Lots of cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and bottles so I hope that all works out. I will condition for 4-5 weeks.

Cleanup was a lot easier than I thought and I was dreading it, but not so bad. The only thing was I tasted a little bit of the dregs in the bottling bucket left after all the bottles were filled. It didn't taste so great..kind of cidery and sweet but I'm hoping that it was just beer from the bottom of the barrel and not indicative of the final product.

Thanks for the all the advice and I learned quite a bit doing this first brew. I did several successful ones decades ago and this is the first one back in relatively old age (well, old age.) Next time, either it's later in the year, or I concoct some device to cool the wort during the first stages of fermentation.

a chest freezer and temp controller will make it easier to keep the temp you need to ferment, and when not in use, turn the temp down to 35-40 and keep the bottle beer ready to drink. I have this one http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amana-5-...gclid=CMu2iqrzkscCFUiFfgod4BgLwQ&gclsrc=aw.ds and it has served me well. :rockin:

The dregs will have a lot of yeasty flavor to them, so not entirely indicative of the final product. Store the bottles around 70F for that 4-5 weeks. Might even be ready at 3-4 weeks, so maybe fridge one for 5 days at that point to check on it's progress.

I wouldn't wait 4-5 weeks. That's a long time for that beer. I would check one at 2 weeks, chill it for a full 24 hours, 48 would be better, and check carb level.

Thanks for the feedback all. Particularly the part on the taste of the dregs. The bottles are downstairs and the temp is 74. Maybe I can get it down a little by leaving the bathroom door open to the cooler basement but that's it for the moment. I used to have a second refrigerator I bought at a yard sale down there but that was a long time ago. Maybe I'll find one at some point on Craigslist or around the neighborhood. Any thoughts on how to get the temp down other than a refrigerator for the bottles (maybe a type of swamp cooler?)

I'll check one or two around 3.5 weeks and see how it goes.

Thanks again and good to be back in the brewing game.

Sorry for the tangent, but that looks like a nice freezer! Can you put a fermenter on one side and blow off container on the other? Does the little sliding rack they show in the pictures come off easily?

buckinin said:

Sorry for the tangent, but that looks like a nice freezer! Can you put a fermenter on one side and blow off container on the other? Does the little sliding rack they show in the pictures come off easily?

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The rack comes out. I can put a Brewcraft 8 gal/30L bucket in the deep side with an airlock and have plenty of room to store at 22 oz bottles on the other side. My Brewcraft bucket is deep enough that I have not had to worry about a blow off tub when doing 5 gallon batches.

nlavon said:

Thanks for the feedback all. Particularly the part on the taste of the dregs. The bottles are downstairs and the temp is 74. Maybe I can get it down a little by leaving the bathroom door open to the cooler basement but that's it for the moment. I used to have a second refrigerator I bought at a yard sale down there but that was a long time ago. Maybe I'll find one at some point on Craigslist or around the neighborhood. Any thoughts on how to get the temp down other than a refrigerator for the bottles (maybe a type of swamp cooler?)

I'll check one or two around 3.5 weeks and see how it goes.

Thanks again and good to be back in the brewing game.

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for carbonation temperature is not as crucial as it is for fermentation, so 74F will work just fine, leave them as is.
IPAs will hide some amount of off-flavors under the hoppy flavors, so depending on your yeast, you may be Ok (if you used something like WLP-001 you should be fine).

Freezer with temp-control is what I use, but I bought a bigger version, 10.6 cu ft. for $300 including free delivery on sale in Home Depot, works for cellaring bottles too.
But for cheap cooler, swamp cooler - put wet t-shirt over carboy, maybe add a fan blowing at it - work fine.
So does putting carboy in a tub filled with cool water and dropping ice/ frozen packs or frozen water bottles in it occasionally. Can get you 5-10F cooler for sure.
The tub will also help stabilize night-to-day fluctuations in temperatures, if you have those.

I would open your first bottle after about 7-10 days after bottling - basically today (could be well carbonated at 74F - I often have finished carbonation within 5-7 days at those temperatures) and if still flat, then maybe open another every 3-4 days, depending on how it goes. Don't wait 3-4 weeks with an IPA, flavor could be changing fast as hop character disappears.

good luck!

Some of my IPA's have taken 3 weeks to carb fully & condition out that green beer quality to where the malts & hops taste & smell as expected. Quicker isn't always the case.

Hello said:

I wouldn't wait 4-5 weeks. That's a long time for that beer. I would check one at 2 weeks, chill it for a full 24 hours, 48 would be better, and check carb level.

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^ This. 2 weeks at those temps is more than sufficient for an IPA. I think anything over 2.5-3 weeks is not going to have any positive impact on the beer, not to say there will be negative either, but why punish yourself?