Bottle Tonight or Saturday?

Hi! I am so excited to bottle my first brew but I don't want to do it too soon. For the last 2 days my hydrometer has read 1.009 and the bubbling has definitely slowed to a crawl. My husband and I can bottle tonight OR we have such a crazy week we wouldn't be able to do it until Saturday afternoon. This is Day 8 in my primary. So is it too early to do it tonight?

My other question is regarding the spout on my bottling pail. Do I just pour directly from there to bottle or place a tube on it OR is it better to still siphon?

Thanks. I am enjoying reading everyone's posts and can see how addicting home brewing is already.

I'd wait until saturday at the earliest. I never bottle until the beer has been in the primary, or combination of primary and secondary, for at least 3 weeks. Even after fermentation is done you want to give the yeast time to clean up after themselves, making your beer that much better.

As for bottling, once you carefully rack to the bottling bucket affix one of these to the spigot. it'll make your life much easier.

Welcome to the forum and the obsession

I personally would wait another 1-2 weeks, good beer apparently comes from a great amount of patience...but I'm only on my first batch anyhow, but from the enormous amount of info that I've read on this forum, the general consensus when in doubt is to procrastinate!

I too would wait a few more weeks.

I take it from your name that you're located in Massachusetts? Where abouts?

I was very impatient for my first brew...only left it in the primary for 10 days. At the end I had very good beer, but it was a little....uninteresting? My next batch I let it sit in the primary for 2 weeks, and ended up with an amazing beer! My third I let sit in the primary for 2.5 weeks, and not only did I end up with great beer, it was MUCH clearer and cleaner tasting. I'm an impatient brewer, and I should probably wait 3-4 weeks before bottling, but I wait a minimum of 2 weeks. I highly recommend waiting AT LEAST 2 weeks and preferably 3 weeks before bottling.

Alright. Wait I shall. I am a pretty good procrastinator in most things.

Thanks c.n. I actually have one of those doodads that came with my kit and now I know what I can do with it!

Melana, not from Mass. Brewinmama means I am a mama that brews.

Okay, so if I manage to wait two weeks, do I still have to wait another 2-3 in the bottles or can this time be lessened?

Do you all sanitize your bottles right before bottling? I am uber paranoid about getting nasties in my bottles. If I sanitize a few days before where and how can I store them so as not to contaminate?

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

I was very impatient for my first brew...only left it in the primary for 10 days. At the end I had very good beer, but it was a little....uninteresting? My next batch I let it sit in the primary for 2 weeks, and ended up with an amazing beer! My third I let sit in the primary for 2.5 weeks, and not only did I end up with great beer, it was MUCH clearer and cleaner tasting. I'm an impatient brewer, and I should probably wait 3-4 weeks before bottling, but I wait a minimum of 2 weeks. I highly recommend waiting AT LEAST 2 weeks and preferably 3 weeks before bottling.

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I've found an amazing improvement in my beers now that I leave them sitting on the yeast for 3-4 weeks, to let the yeasties clean up after themselves after fermentation is done. Doing that you can even skip the secondary and go straight to bottles.

The beer is much crisper, cleaner and clearer than when you rush them into secondary, or to bottling.

No worries, I read that wrong... sorry for the confusion! My brain is a bit squishy from work today!!!

I sanitize bottles on bottling day. I've tried a couple of techniques and they both seem to work. One is to simply use my sanitizing solution of choice (I'm becoming a star san fan). I put sanitizer in my bottling bucket, immerse each bottle in the solution, empty solution back in to the bucket, I then put the sanitized bottles in the dishwasher (which I sanitize with a spray bottle). Bottles are ready to grab for bottling --- I actually use the open door of the dishwasher as my bottling 'platform'.

The other technique that I've used is to use the dishwasher, using every 'hot' setting there is. I use 'sanitize' 'extra hot' and 'heated drying' cycles. Preferable not to have any jet dry in dishwasher as this reportedly kills any head from your beer. This takes longer, but requires much less labor.

I have had no problems with either method.

And remember, it's not a question of being too paranoid...rather are you paranoid enough!

For sanitizing bottles, I use my dishwasher which has a "Sanitize" cycle. I think it works just like the regular cycle, but heats up to a very high temp. I've done this for every batch and have yet to get a bad bottle. Keep in mind that the dishwasher will not clean the bottles for you...you have to do that on your own with a bottle brush and/or jet bottle washer. This system works pretty good, and I do my bottling right over the dishwasher door, for easy clean up.

Melana said:

No worries, I read that wrong... sorry for the confusion! My brain is a bit squishy from work today!!!

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are you sure it's just from work?

When it comes to fermentation, waiting a few more days can only be a small mistake. On the other hand, rushing can be a disaster.


TL

brewinmama said:

Okay, so if I manage to wait two weeks, do I still have to wait another 2-3 in the bottles or can this time be lessened?

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Still have to wait 3 weeks in the bottle

And welcome from another brewin' girl.

brewinmama said:

Okay, so if I manage to wait two weeks, do I still have to wait another 2-3 in the bottles or can this time be lessened?

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Nope can't alter a natural process...remember the beer is alive, and has it's own agenda.

This expalins why. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=558191&postcount=101

Thanks for all the input.

tmoney, glad to see I'm not the only lady brewer. When my husband bought me my beginner's kit for my birthday the guys at the shop didn't believe it was on my wish list. They thought he was buying a left handed gift. I figure I love to cook and I love beer, so why not homebrew?

brewinmama said:

Thanks for all the input.

tmoney, glad to see I'm not the only lady brewer. When my husband bought me my beginner's kit for my birthday the guys at the shop didn't believe it was on my wish list. They thought he was buying a left handed gift. I figure I love to cook and I love beer, so why not homebrew?

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I love brewing- I think it's better than cooking because after you're done cooking you have dirty pots and pans. After you're done brewing, you have BEER!

brewinmama said:

Hi! I am so excited to bottle my first brew but I don't want to do it too soon. For the last 2 days my hydrometer has read 1.009 and the bubbling has definitely slowed to a crawl. My husband and I can bottle tonight OR we have such a crazy week we wouldn't be able to do it until Saturday afternoon. This is Day 8 in my primary. So is it too early to do it tonight?

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I'd wait.

Patience may be the cardinal virtue of homebrewers, althought it is a difficult trait to cultivate.

I find that these things help me not rush the process:

* having enough batches going that I am not obsessing over what's in the primary at any given moment

* having enough batches bottled that I am not trying to test brews too early (although I *always* crack a bottle at 1 week for scientific purposes only)

* having some other brewy activity to do; yeast propagation, etc

* having a controlled beer fermentation fridge so I can't see the primary. Out of sight, out of mind.