American Brown Ale bottling

I have an American Brown Ale that started at 1.050 and will finish around 1.013 (5 gal). It has been fermenting for 7 days at 67F. Please help me with my bottling plans.

I plan to:

- Rack to secondary and ferment an extra 7 days at 67F to finish and clear
- Transfer from secondary to bottling bucket after secondary and prime with 3oz. of corn sugar.
- Keep at room temperature (68-70F) for maturation (3 weeks).
- Drink!

Questions:

- Do you think racking to secondary is necessary?
- Do I keep the bottles at the same temperature as what the beer fermented at?
- Am I missing anything?

Thanks!

Many of us leave our beers in primary for a month then bottle. I find my beer is clearer and cleaner tasting and has consistantly scored higher in contest as compared to when I used a secondary.

I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread.

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

Most everyone on this forum has ventured their opinions on the subject many many many many many many many many many many times, and most of them have ended up in the above thread. If you really do want opinions, and even some facts and citations, and articles, podcasts and other things on this topic, hit that thread, then make up your own mind.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.


Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....



If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

I think you want more than 3 oz of corn sugar. I normally use 3/4 cup which I believe is 4 oz.