not to sound dumb...

[cosmokramer]

well im about to brew some of my first beer. going to bottle it after fermentation, but a quick question.

having a five gallon batch equating to around 50 bottles means i cant store em all in my fridge. does it matter if i keep some out in 65-75 degree temps after bottling or will it affect the taste after a while? i feel dumb asking that because i think i know the answer but i dont want to be wrong.. ha

thanks

 

[JOHN51277]

Well, There are no dumb questions. Especially when you are learning how to brew. You want to let them bottle condition for about 3-4 weeks, or even longer depending on the style you are brewing. Bottle conditioning is best at 70 degrees. It allows the yeast to eat up the priming sugars and produce the needed Co2 for the carbonation. I leave all of my bottles (when i used to bottle) at 65-75 and only put the ones I wanted to drink in the fridge a few days beforehand. If it is an IPA, or a hefe, it should be consumed rather quickly to take advantage of the flavors. If it is a higher ABV brew, like a porter, barleywine, stout, it will be better with some cellering age to it.

 

[Nurmey]

You can keep them out as long as you like. I rarely have more than a 6er in the fridge but have several cases in my basement.

Remember that you have to keep them at room temperature for 3 weeks after bottling so they will carbonated.

 

[Beernik]

I agree with the above, the temp won't hurt your beer.. Just make sure you keep them out of the light. Light will skunk beer.

 

[cosmokramer]

i have read before that i only need to really condition the beer after bottling for about 10 days for it to be ready to drink (fully carbonated). you guys say 3 weeks/20 days?

i guess i just get so confused and second guess and worry about these things because i dont really want to mess anything up. i see so much different information in so many places. not at all to say you guys are wrong. but being a first time brewer i want to get into good habits.

thanks for the help in advance guys!

 

[Nurmey]

Who are you calling a guy?

Three weeks in the "standard" for fully carbonated beer. It can take longer for some and shorter for others.

I've been brewing for over 5 years and never had a beer ready in 10 days but I let my beer age in bulk for a while. If you are in a big hurry and rush to bottle, you may have carbonation after 10 days but you also drastically increase your chance of bottle bombs.

 

[cosmokramer]

how would i prevent bottles from blowing up? the instructions recommend i used 3/4 oz of the bottling primer sugar. would that work?

 

[Pezman1]

Conditioning and carbonating are really two different things.

Conditioning (in short) is aging your beer for best taste. Carbonating your beer is making it fizzy.

All the above posters are correct. When bottling, the recommended procedure is three weeks at 70 degrees F. This allows time to carb up AND some conditioning time. True, some beers will carb up after just ten days or so, but almost any beer benefits from the extra time spent conditioning.

You can then store your beer for a year or more at room temp and just stick them in the fridge for a few days before drinking. I try to keep a six pack in the fridge, and just top off when I drink some.

You might want to invest in some 22 oz. bottles. MUCH easier to fill and store 25-28 of these than all of those 12s.

EDIT bottle explosions are prevented by using the 3/4 cup of dextose mentioned. The yeast eat that up, run out of sugar, and then stop making so much CO2.

 

[Pezman1]

At the top of this forum, look at the stcky entitled "beginner extract brew how to"

Also, go to the bottling/kegging forum and look for Revvy's excellent sticky on bottling.
Pez.

 

[cosmokramer]

right on, read up a little. thanks guys. just put the beer in the fermentor to start the process. kinda worried about pitching at 78 degrees but im hoping that wont be a huge deal. it took a looooooonnnggg time to get it down in temp and the ice bath finally got it down enough to where i felt somewhat comfortable.

now starts the waiting game..

 

[TheWeeb]

waiting, and wanting . .

 

[cosmokramer]

Yeaaa.. But being that its my first time I REALLY want it now. I'm sure ill be able to hold off better on future batches.


Its like christmas for adults!


Until then however finally picked up the magic hat summer seasonal 12 pack mix. Yessssssssss!

 

[ChshreCat]

i used 3/4 oz of the bottling primer sugar. would that work?

I hope that was a typo. 3/4 oz won't do much.

Oh, and while there are no dumb questions, there are stupid answers now and then.

 

[cosmokramer]

everything ive ever read about making the priming sugar mentioned 3/4 oz of it.

you trying to blow these bottles up on me?! hahah

 

[ChshreCat]

everything ive ever read about making the priming sugar mentioned 3/4 oz of it.

you trying to blow these bottles up on me?! hahah

Nope. I think you're confusing cups and ounces. People who can't weigh their sugar use 3/4 cup as a baseline. In weight, that's about 5 ounces.

Here's a bottle priming calculator to help you figure out how much sugar to use for a given style of beer:

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

Sorry to say that if you used .75 ounces of sugar in a 5 gallon batch, you're going to get nary a bubble.

 

[cosmokramer]

well based on the calculator with my 5 gallon batch of kolsch style beer its saying i should use 4.7 ounces of priming sugar.? am i not reading that correctly? therefore the 3/4 a cup of the sugar would give me the 5 ounces i need?


hmmm...

 

[cosmokramer]

edit: i just read the last 2 posts and finally noticed i kept saying 3/4 oz of priming sugar when i should have said 3/4 cup like you were saying.

i got it now. thanks hahahahah.

 

[ChshreCat]

Whew! I was wondering there!

but you really should invest in a scale. 3/4 cups of sugar is about 5 ounces. Depending on how the sugar gets packed, it could be more or it could be less. Weight is much more accurate.

 

[cosmokramer]

I think I have a scale somewhere in the house if not I'm sure I could find one fairly cheap at the store

 

[ChshreCat]

I just got a cheap digital scale at Target. Think it cost me about 15 bucks. Not big enough for grain, but it weighs sugar and hop additions just great down to .1oz.