Bottling Temperature Question and Priming

A couple questions for those more experienced than myself:

- I bottled my Chinook IPA and put the bottles in the basement, problem it is winter in Michigan and only 50F in my basement. I have no other way to heat it up as upstairs it is already 70F, plenty warm. I've considered a portable heater to place near the bottles but I don't want to spend a fortune in electricity to keep bottles warm.

I've also tried moving them upstairs but if I have a bottle bomb, my wife might ban me from brewing if I screw up a bathroom or worse yet spare bedroom with beer and glass shrapnel. Has anybody had a bottle bomb go off in a Rubbermaid bin, would it contain the mess or blow right through it? Or am I find bottle conditioning at 50F, I assume that won't work as the yeast go dormant.

- I brewed a Chinook IPA extract kit from northern brewing, it didn't mention how much priming sugar to use per 5gal batch. I used 5oz, going with the 1oz per gallon recommendation I've seen in the forums. I know there are calculators for this but I can't seem to find that style in the calculators to determine the amount of priming sugar to use.

One ounce of priming sugar per gallon is a good amount- that sounds fine.

If fermentation was finished when you bottled, you won't have bottle bombs. I never have had one in all these years.

A rubbermaid container is a great idea. That will be good "insurance" so that your wife won't have a problem with the bottles upstairs.

You're right- it'll never carb up at 50 degrees. They need to be 68-70 degrees ideally, but they might carb up at 64-65 albeit slowly. At 50, the yeast will be pretty sluggish.

5 oz seems like a little more than I would use. But, regardless you have to raise the temperature of the bottles if you want them to carb properly. Shake them and put them in a rubbermaid container with a lid. Put in the a closet with some books on top and forget about them for a month.

A great Carb calculator (that has IPA on it.)

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Thanks for easing my mind, I think I'll do the bins for now in a spare bedroom and call it good. I wasn't aware the bottle bombs were caused by bottling too soon. I thought it was from over priming, which I suppose both could happen but it sounds like the 5oz is fine as you said.

I'm more confident knowing my fermentation was complete based on hydrometer reading. I wish my new house didn't have an unfinished and poorly heated basement! Not great for brewing in Michigan, there is only one vent down there and it is always 20 degree's cooler than the upstairs levels.

thanks again

egrimmer said:

Thanks for easing my mind, I think I'll do the bins for now in a spare bedroom and call it good. I wasn't aware the bottle bombs were caused by bottling too soon. I thought it was from over priming, which I suppose both could happen but it sounds like the 5oz is fine as you said.

I'm more confident knowing my fermentation was complete based on hydrometer reading. I wish my new house didn't have an unfinished and poorly heated basement! Not great for brewing in Michigan, there is only one vent down there and it is always 20 degree's cooler than the upstairs levels.

thanks again

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It sounds like you can be a winter lager brewer! And, you'll have great fermentation temperatures in the summer if you can keep that area in the 60s.