Play Good Cop Bad Cop (Please)

So... my hubby started drinking the homebrew (now if I could get him to help clean labels the bottles) so my pipeline has sprung a giant leak...

Here is my decision. I have always followed a general time frame of 10-14days in primary, then 7-14 days in the secondary. Bottle, don't touch anything for at least 2 weeks, and even then slowly work through the odd half dozen to see how the beer is coming along. Mostly it conditions for about 5 weeks before being stocked in the fridge.

If I follow this, then the batches that I have on now are not going to be "ready" by Christmas, yet I have the feeling that they will be drank. So my question is...

Do I take my Coopers Real Ale out of the Primary today, throw it into the secondary and bottle it next week? It is done fermenting, prolly since Wednesday or Thursday. Or am I being bad for even thinking it?

Leave it. your yeast makes off flavors in the consumption and transformation of sugars. Leaving it on a little longer (say a week after your gravity reading halts) is a good baseline for clean up. However, you don't want to leave it on for too long because autolysis is a real threat. (these are off flavors that occur when the yeast is starved and starts to feed on itself) So in short, don't rob the beer of being cleaned up but don't over do it at the same time.

Rack it to the secondary, cold crash it so it will clear quickly and bottle. Once in the bottles, warm it up to 20C or so to speed the conditioning. Are you planning on carbonating it at all?

I agree with david, but allow proper primary fermentation time.

I carb it in the bottles... once bottled it will make it about 3-4 weeks before being touched...

I don't actually know what cold crashing is? Can you point me at a thread or give a quick explanation? I usually add isinglass finings in the secondary. So far all my beers have been very clear and had very little sediment.

Hmm... I had thought that leaving it longer in the primary was to help some of the heavier stuff settle out. Going to have to read more about the little yeasties doing their work.

Keep it coming! (can you put polls in threads? I want a voting button )

Cold crashing is putting the beer in the fridge or cold box to make the yeast fall out of suspension. It helps clear your beer very very fast.

So who wears the pants in this brewing relationship, huh? Huh? Man up and tell your good for nothing husband to back off on your beer and leave it for Christmas! Tell him if he wants to drink green beer to brew his own, and suck it straight out of the carboy if he wants, but to leave the "GOOD STUFF" til Christmas. Tell him it will be embarrasing as all get out to be serving green beer on baby jeesus birthday.

Oh and tell him that those Jeans DO make his butt look big while you're at it.

That's hillarious!

Revvy said:

So who wears the pants in this brewing relationship, huh? Huh? Man up and tell your good for nothing husband to back off on your beer and leave it for Christmas! Tell him if he wants to drink green beer to brew his own, and suck it straight out of the carboy if he wants, but to leave the "GOOD STUFF" til Christmas. Tell him it will be embarrasing as all get out to be serving green beer on baby jeesus birthday.

Oh and tell him that those Jeans DO make his butt look big while you're at it.

Click to expand...

You make me laugh! He is cool with not drinking once the beer runs out. But where will that leave me! Lol, and we do have a few other batches kicking around... there is a light beer that neither of us is fond of and a blond that is conditioning that we haven't tried at all yet. But he likes the IPA and I like the Pilsner and we are running out of both fast.

My grandmother told me about one of my uncles (bit of a drinking issue) that tried making beer, but kept "dipping into" it and none made it to bottling. I can't even imagine drinking stuff unless it has been in process for at least 3-5 weeks (depending on whatever) but we are talking he prolly first tried it before there were signs of fermentation. Yuck!

I totally agree with Revvy.
It does bring up a point that apparently you need to double your production if your hubby is going to start messing with your brew time line. You need to get him to help too.

it really sounds like you should be thinking about a kegging system. it easily cuts 2-3 wks off the conditioning phase for all beers. i can take biermunchers blonde from grain to glass in in 3wks, granted it does get better for about 2wks after that but still good at 3wks.

Kegging! Oh no! I only started the whole brewing thing in August and have spent $300+ on equipment. In fact just recently bought 2 new primaries last weeks so that I could step up production.

Maybe I will leave it for another while and try "cold crashing" it on Friday to bottle on the weekend. Now, how to convince hubby that the second fridge that was here when we moved in should be plugged in for beer reasons? Good thing it didn't make it to the dump, but now I have to deal with the Popsicle in the freezer...

lady_brewer said:

Kegging! Oh no! I only started the whole brewing thing in August and have spent $300+ on equipment. In fact just recently bought 2 new primaries last weeks so that I could step up production.

Maybe I will leave it for another while and try "cold crashing" it on Friday to bottle on the weekend. Now, how to convince hubby that the second fridge that was here when we moved in should be plugged in for beer reasons? Good thing it didn't make it to the dump, but now I have to deal with the Popsicle in the freezer...

Click to expand...

i turned mine into a lager fridge when i started brewing. but if its a good size it shouldn't be a problem to also use it for kegs

I am lucky in that as long as I want to lager in the winter I have lots of cold spaces in my house/ sheds. (House is better because I can still heat to limit the low end temperature.)

I am already imagining the construction of my beer room when we build the extension on the house. Low sinks, lots of shelves, burner units... anybody have any dream system pictures?

Ah well... will keep my brewing itch down by cleaning bottles I suppose. That is usually enough to get me out of the mood to do anything else.

Lady

I am going to begin kegging soon only after about 10 months of brewing. I love the bottles, but the capping cleaning, opening, cleaning, storing, sanitizing, the cleaning, the bottling. My wife thought I was silly for getting into beer making, she said "Oh no! Not another obsession!" She hasn't complained about on beer and is starting to get an interest in making. She wants to know what is on deck next. I have a great supply going, AHS pumpkin ale, AHA Oatmeal stout with my own hops added, A pilsner and fermenting one of my favorites from Guelph, Ontario, AHS Sleemans Steam.

I had the fortune of coming across 8 corny kegs, the tap system (picnic type) and a cooling manifold for quick cooling beer, wife is not pleased. The issue is where do I store all these kegs? I have decided to sell the Harley to make room for the kegs, really I am going to make space in the shed for both the Harley and kegs.

Isn't brewing great, eh?

Well Hubby has a bilg garage where he can play with his drills and compressors and welder and build his bike. Besides that we have 2 other shads and a boathouse. The brew room is actually supposed to be a jacuzzi room. But is is a good size for the equipment and small enough to keep at a good brewing temp.

As of right now I have the Real Ale, a Stout, a Draught and an IPA in primaries. I also have a cran-apple wine in the secondary. There are 29 bottles of wine and 9 dozen beer (4 of which are set aside for Christmas presents.) and I am worried that we will run out.

This is a fantastic hobby! No idea what I would have done with all the space in our new house if I wasn't doing it. Would have ended up a giant pack rat with stuff everywhere. Instead it will be beer and wine everywhere!

I love it! Other than beer I make wine, I have 50 gallons of various wines sitting till next August. A few of those will be Christmas presents most others will be for friends and family. I am going to take about a 12 pack of Pumpkin to Thanksgiving on Thursday.

I am obsessed too!

lady_brewer said:

I am lucky in that as long as I want to lager in the winter I have lots of cold spaces in my house/ sheds. (House is better because I can still heat to limit the low end temperature.)

I am already imagining the construction of my beer room when we build the extension on the house. Low sinks, lots of shelves, burner units... anybody have any dream system pictures?

Ah well... will keep my brewing itch down by cleaning bottles I suppose. That is usually enough to get me out of the mood to do anything else.

Click to expand...

Sounds like room is not a problem; only extending your pipeline. By this I don't mean kegging. I considered and rejected kegging about a year ago, even though I have some of the equipment (CO2 bottle, regulator, tap) sitting on the shelf. I like the simplicity of bottles, and my system works for me. I just put up more shelves, collected more bottles, and then did extra brewing until I have a longer pipeline, or more inventory- however you want to look at it. My biggest asset in this is the calendar program on my computer. I enter everything as I do it, and it helps me keep track of what I have.