Bottle to bottle consistency - is stirring ever recommended?

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Rev2010

Rev2010

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So yesterday I bottled my first Cooper's Lager batch, all went well. The wife and I took a few samples in 2-3 small glasses and put them in the fridge, just as a cold flat taster for curiosity. I noticed that each glass had a bit difference in color with one rich and golden and the other thinner and lighter looking.

So I got to wondering, is it ever recommended to gently stir up the beer before bottling or ever so gently rock the fermenter a little? I know it's recommended to avoid getting air into the beer at that stage so I'm guessing the answer is no? If so, what do people do to make the beer more consistent from bottle to bottle... or does that just happen naturally during bottle conditioning?


Rev.
 
Rev2010 said:
So yesterday I bottled my first Cooper's Lager batch, all went well. The wife and I took a few samples in 2-3 small glasses and put them in the fridge, just as a cold flat taster for curiosity. I noticed that each glass had a bit difference in color with one rich and golden and the other thinner and lighter looking.

So I got to wondering, is it ever recommended to gently stir up the beer before bottling or ever so gently rock the fermenter a little? I know it's recommended to avoid getting air into the beer at that stage so I'm guessing the answer is no? If so, what do people do to make the beer more consistent from bottle to bottle... or does that just happen naturally during bottle conditioning?


Rev.
Click to expand...

I started out not stirring. The bottles were inconsistent. When I started to stir gently with the racking cane they seemed to be more consistent. Just be gentle when you stir.
 
You can gently stir while racking the beer onto the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. Usually if you put your boiled priming sugar in the bucket first, the movement of racking on top of it is enough to mix it. If in doubt, sanitize a long spoon and stir without splashing.
 
I subscribe to the notion that two tiny cups worth of priming solution dissolves itself just fine without the need to stir when placed in the bottling bucket and the 5 gallons of beer is racked on top. When the 5 gallons starts swirling and lifting up the bucket it mixes itself just fine. And that inconsistent carbonation is merely impatience. Some folks feel the need to stir, if it makes them happy fine. But I'm more concerned about oxygentation and possible infection risk....And my experience has been that the sugar solution mixes itself fine on it's own.
 
I'm not using a sugar solution as of yet, currently using the Cooper's carbonation drops. Being that my fermenter has a spigot and bottler attachment the keg really never moves so that's part of why I was wondering. I may need to do the sugar solution for the next batch since I'm going to be doing the Cooper's Wheat but plan to bottle in 500ml bottles, for which I think 2 drops might be too much and one too little? Oh, one last question... since the Cooper's drops dissolve in the bottle, is it ever ok to add sugar directly into the bottle before filling instead of doing the boiled water with sugar added?


Rev.
 
The spigot rests above the trub and pours relatively slow and calmly. It also has an attachment that minimizes trub. Not sure that would really be the reason, but hey what do I know?


Rev.
 
For most people the act of racking to a bottling bucket mixes the beer up enough to produce a relatively consistent beer from bottle to bottle. Since you don't rack to a bottling bucket, I would sanitize a spoon and ***GENTLY*** stir to get a little mixing action. Keep in mind, oxygen is a beer killer at this stage in the game, so you have to be crazy careful. Alternatively, if you racked to a bottling bucket instead of bottling from your fermentor it would probably solve the problem.
 
Guys, he is bottling directly from his primary using carb drops.

I would suggest you get a bottling bucket and use bulk priming. Your beers will be much more consistent both in priming and in color.
 
After reading this post.... I think I am doomed. I recenter bottled my first beer a week ago. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to stir the beer to get the priming sugar mixed in. :( :( :(

I siphoned it from my primary into my secondary bottling bucket. then stired it up to mix the sugar... haha. I guess it's time to get started on #2
 
Jhoe said:
I had no idea I wasn't supposed to stir the beer to get the priming sugar mixed in. :(
Click to expand...

Well, some people said they give a gentle stir so I don't think you're really doomed lol. You didn't vigorously stir it did you?

And yeah, I'm still totally new to this with a Cooper's kit and a millions questions. I have the How to brew Palmer book but am of course coming up with new questions way ahead of the time I get to the book section to answer said questions. Eventually I will upgrade... I always do! But for now I'm just running with this kit for a while, especially since it was a christmas gift from the wife. If I did stir it would literally be a super gentle 2-3 circles with the sanitized spoon, that's all. Just to give it a more uniform dispersion. I think I'm going to try it when I do the Wheat beer.

I have another darn question for that, maybe I can just ask it here and avoid another n00b thread lol. For the wheat kit I have 500g of Light Dry Malt and 300g of Dextrose. I am planning on probably using Wyeast 3068 and I was wondering if I should skip the Dextrose and use more Light Dry Malt, and if so how much? Or is there some other type of malt I should use?


Rev.
 
Jhoe said:
After reading this post.... I think I am doomed. I recenter bottled my first beer a week ago. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to stir the beer to get the priming sugar mixed in. :( :( :(

I siphoned it from my primary into my secondary bottling bucket. then stired it up to mix the sugar... haha. I guess it's time to get started on #2
Click to expand...

Relax, your beer is most likely fine. It's always a good time to start the next batch though:).
 
Rev, my first two batches ever was the Coopers kit. They were also the two worst beers I've ever brewed, but I don't know if it was me or the kits.
Anyway, I've since stopped using the kits and my fermenter/bottler gizmo. If I was you I would go to your LHBS and pick up an Ale Pail and use that for primary fermentation and then use the Coopers pail as your bottling bucket. Racking to the bottling bucket will gently stir the beer and then you can add priming sugar to the whole batch instead of each bottle individually. ...but that's just me.
 
Rev2010 said:
Well, some people said they give a gentle stir so I don't think you're really doomed lol. You didn't vigorously stir it did you?

And yeah, I'm still totally new to this with a Cooper's kit and a millions questions. I have the How to brew Palmer book but am of course coming up with new questions way ahead of the time I get to the book section to answer said questions. Eventually I will upgrade... I always do! But for now I'm just running with this kit for a while, especially since it was a christmas gift from the wife. If I did stir it would literally be a super gentle 2-3 circles with the sanitized spoon, that's all. Just to give it a more uniform dispersion. I think I'm going to try it when I do the Wheat beer.

I have another darn question for that, maybe I can just ask it here and avoid another n00b thread lol. For the wheat kit I have 500g of Light Dry Malt and 300g of Dextrose. I am planning on probably using Wyeast 3068 and I was wondering if I should skip the Dextrose and use more Light Dry Malt, and if so how much? Or is there some other type of malt I should use?


Rev.
Click to expand...

It can't hurt to have a little wheat malt extract in a wheat beer;). Using light malt extract will work fine also. I would avoid using dextrose in a recipe.
 
Jhoe said:
After reading this post.... I think I am doomed. I recenter bottled my first beer a week ago. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to stir the beer to get the priming sugar mixed in. :( :( :(

I siphoned it from my primary into my secondary bottling bucket. then stired it up to mix the sugar... haha. I guess it's time to get started on #2
Click to expand...

Oxygen takes time to ruin beer, so for this batch, let it age a little to come together, but then don't sit on it for an extended period of time. Generally I would say let it sit in bottles for 3-4 weeks to carb up and age, and then drink it quickly assuming it is carbed.
 
Clonefarmer said:
It can't hurt to have a little wheat malt extract in a wheat beer;). Using light malt extract will work fine also. I would avoid using dextrose in a recipe.
Click to expand...

It does include a can of hopped wheat malt extract. I was just wondering since they seem to replace most of the sugar with Light Dry Malt if I should just use more of that. Is there something else I should use instead for this wheat beer? Should I replace the Light Dry Malt with something else entirely? Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the help guys!


Rev.
 
I have always mixed a little priming sugar at a time in while racking to my bottle bucket. @ bottenbrew, 100% correct should take some time of you sloshed it around. I always understood that the big deal is not getting the "vortex of oxygen death" when moving the hot wort, bottling, or basically any other time you dont want to oxygenate the beer. Unless cardboard is tasteful to you.
 
Rev2010 said:
It does include a can of hopped wheat malt extract. I was just wondering since they seem to replace most of the sugar with Light Dry Malt if I should just use more of that. Is there something else I should use instead for this wheat beer? Should I replace the Light Dry Malt with something else entirely? Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the help guys!


Rev.
Click to expand...

You can use Light DME in place of the sugar. Light DME makes a good base for most beer.
 
Clonefarmer said:
You can use Light DME in place of the sugar. Light DME makes a good base for most beer.
Click to expand...

Great thanks. Last thing, since I'd be replacing 300g of Dextrose should 500g of DME be ok? Guess that would be a total of 1kg of DME for a 23 liter batch.


Rev.
 

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