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After three days active fermentation should be mostly finished, which means heat generation should have subsided. I'd just let it sit at ambient (which sounds like it's between 60-70*) until you're ready to bottle.

It's definitely worth the $10 investment to have the peace of mind that you're not going to infect $50+ batches of beer.

I always use an ice bath in the sink, usually with a mix of cubes and an ice block I've frozen in advance. The trick is to keep stirring the wort (I use my mash paddle) and shifting the kettle around in the bath every so often to keep ice and cold water in contact with the sides. By doing this...

None of my buckets have seals on them. Never had a problem with infection.

Quick update ... I gently shook up the bottles and put them in my dining room, which has been sitting in the mid-70s since spring finally sprung. I just opened one up and there was noticeable carbonation. It was still very light, but it is clearly more than when they were in the basement. Looks...

OK, thanks. I'll give that a try.

I added 5 ounces of priming sugar at bottling. That's always worked for me before.

I brewed a Scottish Wee Heavy in November. OG was 1.109, a little below the target of 1.120, and FG in January was 1.040 (target was 1.030). I bottled anyway, thinking it had to be done. But now after five months in the bottle, there is zero carbonation. The bottles have been at a steady 65...

I think with ales you would want them fully conditioned before cooling. There won't be much conditioning in the fridge.

Thanks guys. I'll give it a go and see how it turns out. I'm sure it'll make beer either way :drunk:

I'm planning to do a 5 gallon batch of saison this weekend. It's an all-grain recipe with 10 pounds of pilsner and 3/4 pound of briess caramel, and I'm planning to do brew-in-a-bag because I don't have the equipment for all-grain brewing. The problem is that I only have a 5 gallon brew kettle...

You use brix for a refractometer. When using a hydrometer, use the SG correction, which is about .001.

Leave it alone for three or four weeks. Don't look at it, take a gravity reading or even think about it. Even after active fermentation is complete, the yeast improve the beer by cleaning up their byproducts. I usually don't even think about taking a gravity reading for a month after pitching...

There is no way temperature could account for that huge a difference. It is very difficult to fully mix wort in a carboy if you are using extract. The sugars all go to the bottom, so the OG is almost always low if you are mixing by hand. I take my mash paddle and stick the (sanitized) handle in...

I ended up dumping it and mixing more sanitizer. I'm pretty sure it would have been OK, but I'd rather not blow a $50 batch because I was too cheap to use another ounce of sanitizer. Thanks!

No, I did not clean my equipment with sanitizer. I used One Step then sanitized with Star San. So can it be re-used?

Is there any reason not to reuse sanitizer after it's been used on something with brett? Last week I brewed a lambic and pitched Wyeast 3278, which has brett, lactobacillus and pediococcus. I saved the sanitizer I used to clean up thinking there is no way those bugs should be able to live in...

I pitched at 70 degrees and ambient is steady at 64 degrees. Thanks for the quick replies!

I started up a lambic Saturday afternoon using 1 pound flaked wheat, 3 pounds wheat DME, 3 pounds light DME, 1 ounce saaz and WLP 550. I got the ingredients at the last minute and didn't have time to make a starter. Turns out, that isn't going to be a problem. Krausen was forming by Sunday...

Anyone try this yet? I'm looking at trying the same recipe.