Can I Bottle?

[wjbunton]

I was hoping to bottle tomorrow morning, but I haven't been able to take a FG reading yet. I will when I get home and again in the morning. I know consensus seems to be it is ready to bottle when FG is consistent for 3 days. The beer I am brewing is the Autumn Amber Ale from Midwest Supplies. Saturday will be 1 day short of three weeks fermentation. Can I accept that will be long enough or do I need to wait until I can get 3 FG readings?

Also, would there be any problem with using my bottling bucket and mixing up oxy clean and water to let bottles soak to remove the labels? I guess I am asking if the label glue will cause any harm?

 

[Fennis]

3 weeks is usually plenty of time for your beer to be ready, but the best method for knowing is to take the FG reading and ensure its consistent. The yeast is done most of its work in about a week or so, but in my experience, I let it sit in the primary for a month and I've always had great results doing that and very clear beer.

As for your bottling bucket, I am sure it would be okay, but why chance it? If you scratch the bucket, sure your beer isn't sitting in the bucket for long, but it allows for another chance for bacteria to get into your beer/bottles before it conditions. Instead, if you have a bathtub, all you really need to do is fill it up halfway, mix in oxyclean, and let the bottles soak in the tub overnight. In the morning you will have bottles at the bottom and labels floating on top.

 

[duboman]

At 3 weeks its probably safe to assume its done but you should still take a reading to be sure. It will also allow to calculate ABV and yeast attenuation.

Yes you can use the kicker to soak the bottles but be sure to thoroughly clean and sanitize before using it again for bottling your beer.

 

[wjbunton]

Ok, thanks for the quick responses. I will get a reading tonight and another tomorrow, if there is no change I will bottle.

 

[unionrdr]

I use the cheap orange homer cheapo buckets for soaking bottles,draining soaked clean fermenters,etc. Don't have to worry about the bottling bucket or extra fermenter having label glue in it & the spigots.

 

[sweetcell]

3 weeks is almost always enough to complete fermentation, unless:
- it's a big (strong) beer, say 1.070 & up
- you fermented in the low end (or even below) a yeast' optimal temp range
- you used certain belgian yeast (certain belgian strains are notoriously slow)

so if your beer is a low to average ABV beer and you kept it in the correct temp range, chances are good you'll be ok. taking gravity readings over several days is the only way to be 100% sure, tho.

taking a reading tonight and tomorrow morning probably won't reveal much. if the brew is still fermenting, it will be doing so very slowly. 12 hours between readings likely won't reveal much of a difference... it will fall within your margin of error/user error/etc. that's why you want to wait a few days so that any difference is pronounced enough to be able to detect it.

+1 to get a cheap bucket at home depot for label soaking. i use a "keg tub" from target, cost like $6. also useful for bathing the puppy (well, it was until she outgrew it).

 

[wjbunton]

I use the cheap orange homer cheapo buckets for soaking bottles,draining soaked clean fermenters,etc. Don't have to worry about the bottling bucket or extra fermenter having label glue in it & the spigots.

+1 to this

Probably will pick up something that will double as a swamp cooler so SWMBO can stop complaining that it is so cold.

 

[unionrdr]

Even better yet. Get something just big enough to do the job,so less area is needed for it where space is at a minimum.

 

[wjbunton]

Ok, I just got home and got a reading it comes up at 1.011 which is what I was shooting for. Only thing now is I am freaking out about what it looks like. This is the first time I opened the bucket up and here is what it is:

Is this ok, or is that an infection? Sorry about the low quality pic, only had my phone handy

Oh and just thought maybe it would help to say that I overpitched the yeast and used 2 packs of US-05. Please tell me it is not ruined

 

[duboman]

OMG!!! It looks just like beer!!! Congratulations, you made beer

 

[sweetcell]

it's almost certainly not ruined. keep that fermenter closed as much as possible.

hard to tell with that low-res pic, but looks like yeast rafts to me... perfectly normal.

 

[wjbunton]

Thank you so much. I had lurked these forums for a while and had seen many people post pics freaking out just like I did, just to be assured it was ok, but did I learn from them, of course not. Now to have a taste from the hydrometer jar, now that I know it is not infected..... well not bad but not too good either, no real alcohol taste maybe a little skunky tasting. Hopefully a few weeks in the bottles will help.

 

[DoctorMemory]

You'll be surprised how much the taste changes after just a week in the bottle. After two weeks it should approach its'real' flavor. After four weeks it will probably level off and remain awesome for several months.

 

[sweetcell]

You'll be surprised how much the taste changes after just a week in the bottle. After two weeks it should approach its'real' flavor. After four weeks it will probably level off and remain awesome for several months.

in general this is true. however, big beers will typically improve over several months. some really biguns aren't drinkable until they're 6-12 months old. and very hoppy IPAs are best fresh, IMO. the hop flavor really takes a hit after a month or so.