time for bottling?

Hey guys, I know this is a stupid question but just thought I would ask anyway.

I have had my Belgian Witbier extract kit from NB sitting in the primary for the last 30 days and I was wondering if I should let it sit for longer before I bottle. I read that wheats should take anywhere between 1 - 2.5 weeks for fermentation, and then you want to condition for an additional 2 weeks. So, I'm right at that mark.

I haven't taken any gravity readings yet, because I want to make sure that I should be taking them right now. I'm in no big rush, but just want to make sure it turns out allright and doesn't create too much ester(sp) and turn the beer to a bad taste.

Thanx

4 weeks is enough to take a gravity reading over the next few days, if you don't find any change then your yeast are done. If you do notice a change, close it up and wait a while longer.

I'm still getting air bubbles coming out of the top of my chamber. Not consistently, but every few min or so.

GLoBaLReBeL said:

I'm still getting air bubbles coming out of the top of my chamber. Not consistently, but every few min or so.

Click to expand...

Bubbling isn't always a sign of fermentation, taking readings to see if the gravity is changing is a measurable thing.

You are definitely fine to bottle. When people talking about 2.5 weeks to ferment then a couple weeks to condition for a wheat beer they generally mean bottle condition to carb up. I would take a gravity reading to make sure that it is at expected FG and bottle it up.

Wheat beers are fast beers. Some people go grain to glass with those in as little as 30 days, even faster if kegging. I go 17 for ferment and 21 bottle condition for hefes and wits.

quick question. I only got like 4.5 or 4 gallons of wort from this batch, since I only put in 5 gallons of beer when i did the full boil. So, how much sugar should I use for the bottling part?

Also, I just remembered I did a stupid thing. I didn't cut down on the hops when i did the full boil . . . is my beer going to taste like ****?

(Finally, can anyone tell me how many inches in a carboy is a gallon? So i can get a good idea of how much I have in my carboy, so that when I move it to the botteling bucket, I mix in the right amount of sugar?

Carboys arent a standard size for the most part. I would just cut your sugar down to 4/5's of the normal amount.

Next time fill your carboy up with 1g of water and mark each gallon

Your recipe calls for what? 5 oz of corn sugar? (This is a good medium to high carb level for a wit.) If so, that is really easy to do the math. That is 1 oz per gallon or 4 oz for 4 gallons.

For future reference, you should mark that carboy at 4 G and at 5G so that you know. For this batch take a best guess based on the remaining volume on the carboy vs total volume.

In a 6 gallon Better Bottle, 5 gallons is about 1/2 inch from the top of the top band. I use this one almost exclusively so I know it well.