Quick question...

Hey Folks,

Just a quick question for ya... I have my NB Houblonmonstre Triple IPA in primary right now... It has been there since 9-1 and the airlock was rockin and rollin up until a day or two ago. It is still bubbling along but has slowed way down already. Is that fairly normal??? It stays at or around 70-72 degrees. Only being in primary for a little less than a week seems really quick to me (though I'm use to the mead timeline

One other question I have is... If I skip the secondary, which I plan to, How should I go about adding the priming sugar mixture at bottling time?

Do I just make up the priming mixture and pour it into the primary, or do I rack into another carboy on top of the primer? I don't want to kick up the yeast at bottling time for obvious reasons (sediment and clarity reasons).

I have been reading about secondaries vs. no secondary on here and the instructions that came with the kit stated if I chose not to use a secondary to leave the batch in primary for an extra week.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Previous experiences?

Thanks all,

Mike

Do you have a bottling bucket? You could boil your priming sugar in about 1 cup or so of water and then dump it into the bottling bucket. You then would rack your beer into the bucket and the sugar will mix in nicely. You then just fill your bottles from the bucket.

I have left batches in the primary for 4 weeks before bottling. It gives the yeast a chance to clean up after itself.

Sounds normal.

In terms of bottling, do you not have a bottling bucket? Either way, the best way to introduce the priming sugar would be to add it to an empty and sanitized bucket/carboy and then siphon the beer from the primary into the vessel with the priming sugar. This will allow you to keep from disturbing the trub in the primary and ensure a good mixing of the priming sugar without much hassle.

And yes, you can leave it in the primary for an extra week, or even two or three. It's all good.

Fermenting out in a week or less isn't out of the ordinary, especially since your temps are on the high end. Secondary or not, if you wait 3 weeks or so before bottling it'll improve the brew a lot.

+1 on getting a bottling bucket. Even if you secondary, trying to mix in your priming sugar into the fermenter defeats the whole purpose of letting the beer sit to clarify. No matter how careful you are, you'll stir up all the sediment you've spent weeks allowing to settle out. Get a bottling bucket, and autosiphon and a bottle filler and it'll make the bottling process easy.

Cue Revvy and his tips for bottlers thread...

Thanks for the replies! I do have a bottling bucket with a spout down towards the bottom. Actually that is what I am using as my primary... It's one of those tuff-tanks with a valve near the bottom.

I guess I could siphon the batch out of the primary into glass, then right back into the tuff-tank and then bottle. You know, rack it over until I get the tuff-tank cleaned out and then siphon back into the tuff-tank and then go ahead and bottle. Just do all the racking back to back in the same session and bottle right after that.

What are your thoughts on that? Or should I just rack into the glass carboy and bottle from the glass?

I like to bottle from the tuff-tank since it has the valve... It makes that part easier for me to be able to turn the valve on and off.

Thanks again for your replies.

Mike

In your shoes, I'd just go and pick up a dedicated bottling bucket. They have a spigot with a valve and they're cheap. Then you don't have to worry about trying to free up your primary in order to bottle.

And fyi... the tuff tanks... those are actually sold as pet food containers at Petco. The company that makes them into fermenters adds a $1.99 spigot to them and then charges triple for 'em. If you want any more of them, you can make 'em yourself and save some cash.
http://www.petco.com/product/9799/Gamma-Vittles-Vault-Stackables.aspx

Holy sh*t Cat!! I know where I'll be getting my primaries from now on. Gracious sakes alive... Thanks for that info... I'll just go buy a few more of them and increase my brewing operation across the board

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks,

Mike