I'm brewing a Betsy's Brown Ale kit from High Gravity brewing and am trying to figure out when to bottle it. The instructions say to wait until I don't see a bubble go though the airlock for 48 hours, but today marks 2 weeks in the fermenter and I am still getting a few bubbles a day. It has just about stopped, but is still going a little bit. So my question is, do I need to keep waiting before bottling? Also, what would be the consequence of bottling too soon? Thanks!
When to bottle??
- Thread starter mmm-beer
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jderm
Well-Known Member
i think this belongs in the Beginners Brew Brewing section. Its usually not a great idea to bottle based on bubble activity. the absence of airlock action does not mean that your beer is done. did you instructions mention an OG or FG? Do you have a hydrometer?
jderm
Well-Known Member
to answer your question - bottling too soon can result in overly carbonated bottles. possibly to the point that they could explode. at two weeks your probably okay, but its a good idea to start thinking in terms of attenuation, original gravity, and final gravity.
pericles
Well-Known Member
The best bet is to take gravity readings with a hydrometer for a couple of days. If the gravity remains constant, and is in the zone of your expected final gravity, then your beer is done with active fermentation. At that point I like to give the beer another week to ten days in order to let the yeast clean-up the byproducts of fermentation. Then it's time to package the beer in a keg or bottle.
If you don't have a hydrometer or if you're just too lazy to use one—like me—then three weeks is a good rule of thumb before bottling something in the normal range like a brown ale. Do at least take a final gravity reading, though, to be sure that your beer is in the right zone. If fermentation stalled halfway through, bottling a beer at 1.030 risks bottle bombs.
The airlock is an OK indicator of fermentation status, but it's not great. If you've got a lot of head space, you might not notice many bubbles—or any—even in a vigorous fermentation. On the other hand, bubbles might be caused by offgassing CO2 and SO2, or just by changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure, well after fermentation is completed. In short, while airlock activity can indicate that fermentation has begun or has ended, there are a lot of confounding variables, so it shouldn't be your only yardstick.
If you bottle when fermentation is almost-but-not-quite finished, then you'll be leaving a small amount of fermentable sugar in solution before placing it in a glass bottle. If you're priming, then that extra amount of sugar will throw off your carbonation, and leave you with foamy overcarbonated beer. If there's a LOT of extra fermentables left when you bottle, then you risk bottle bombs from overcarbonation in glass containers.
If you bottle after fermentation has ended but before the conditioning process has really gotten into full swing, then your beer will be fine: it continues to condition in the bottle, and any fermentation related off-flavors will eventually mellow out. Doing so in bottles, however, means that there is significantly less yeast available to condition the beer, and it will take a longer amount of time to clean up than if you had left it in the fermenting vessel. Conditioning in the bottle also means that volatiles like SO2 have nowhere to go, and will be trapped in the vessel with the beer, leaving you with funky smells when you first uncap your bottles.
Thanks guys. I'll take a gravity reading when I get home and see where it is at. It was where it should have been after the boil, so hopefully it's right around where it should be now. The instructions in the kit said 1 to 1 1/2 weeks and to watch the bubbles, so that's why i was wondering. I appreciate your help
