Is my beer ready?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BrewRock_54

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
So it's been 2 weeks since I bottled my beer. Today it should be ready, but in the first 3 days of bottling I put them in the fridge. Should I wait a little longer?
 
They might be ready if you took them back out of the fridge. Three days at room temp most certainly wont be enough to carbonate your beer. Take them out of the fridge, let them warm, give them a gentle swril and forget about your beer for a few weeks. Chill one and then sample.
 
Def warm & swirl. They need to be at 70F or a bit more to carb & condition 3-4 weeks on average. Longer for darker/bigger beers. Then 1-2 weeks fridge time.
 
What's going on is, your fridge is too cold for the yeast; instead of staying active and turning the priming sugar into CO2, they flocculate -- go dormant and sink to the bottom of the bottles.

This is also known as a "cold crash" when you do it to a whole bucket or carboy; most remaining active yeast flocculates, so the brewer can rack off a very clear beer for kegging/bottling/whatever.

But, yeah, you'll need to swirl them to get the yeast that's settled to the bottom back into suspension, and let them warm up to temperatures where the yeast will get to work on that priming sugar instead of just flocculating again.
 
I'd put one in the fridge for 48 hours and check it out. The cold will force more of the CO2 into the liquid.

That being said, my beers usually take from 2-3 weeks on average unless it's a really high gravity beer. Those can take a month or so to carbonate up at room temperatures.
 
Back
Top