First bottling, I have a couple of questions

Well I got my first batch in bottles (10 to be exact). Since it was only a gallon it was easy to do. But I have a few questions.
For those of you that have gone to a single vessel do you rack into another container to bottle to get the cake off the bottom?

If you dissolve your priming sugar in water/beer do you let it get down to room temp before adding it?

Do you have to bottle immediately after adding the dextrose? If not how long can you wait?

FG was 1.012, didn't check the OG (nubbie mistake)
The flavor is good but very mild. I guess that would be expected from a Mr. Beer canned malt.
:fro:

For those of you that have gone to a single vessel do you rack into another container to bottle to get the cake off the bottom? I like to rack it off you get cleaner results.

If you dissolve your priming sugar in water/beer do you let it get down to room temp before adding it? Normally I don't worry about and pitch it because the ratio of hot water to cool wort is so small it will hardly impact it, but that experience is based on 5 gallon batch sizes, on a one gallon batch I would probably let it cool to below 100 before pitching.

Do you have to bottle immediately after adding the dextrose? If not how long can you wait? I would recommend immediately the yeast will begin to consume that sugar soon and then you may not get the level of carbonation you want/expect.

Hope this helps...

Wanted to add one more question to this. How long does carbonation take to develop? As I mentioned in another post I would like to drink one or so a week to see how the flavors develop, but would like to a least wait until it is carbonated.
Thanks,
:fro:

A must read for all brewers....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

A week is kind of early, but I can't say that I haven't done that myself. Depends on your yeast among many factors. S-04 is ready to go one week after bottling.

Wanted to add one more question to this. How long does carbonation take to develop? As I mentioned in another post I would like to drink one or so a week to see how the flavors develop, but would like to a least wait until it is carbonated.

Click to expand...

How long partly depends on the temperature you're storing it at, but generally it's at least a week. Some here say wait a minimum of 3 weeks, but I'm impatient and curious and try one after one week. It's always at least a little undercarbed and a little green tasting. Then I'll try another after the second week. Depending on how that one tastes and what else I've got I may go ahead and drink more. The flavor will continue to develop for a few more weeks after that.

Captain Damage said:

How long partly depends on the temperature you're storing it at, but generally it's at least a week. Some here say wait a minimum of 3 weeks, but I'm impatient and curious and try one after one week. It's always at least a little undercarbed and a little green tasting. Then I'll try another after the second week. Depending on how that one tastes and what else I've got I may go ahead and drink more. The flavor will continue to develop for a few more weeks after that.

Click to expand...

In this regard I'm similar. I call it 'quality control'.

UrbanBrew said:

For those of you that have gone to a single vessel do you rack into another container to bottle to get the cake off the bottom?

Click to expand...

Like Geist, I do as well. It really helps get less sediment in your final product.

UrbanBrew said:

If you dissolve your priming sugar in water/beer do you let it get down to room temp before adding it?

Click to expand...

I actually do let it cool because I am afraid of killing any yeast with the hot water. (even if it's a few cells :cross I can't give you an exact temperature but probably so that it's very warm to the touch but not hot enough to burn.

UrbanBrew said:

Do you have to bottle immediately after adding the dextrose? If not how long can you wait?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't wait. When you start boiling your water for your priming sugar you should be nearly ready to bottle.