After racking how long can you wait to bottle?

[Redbeard5289]

Greetings Everyone.

Got a question that may seem a bit newbish. But after racking my beer from the fermentation bucket to the bottling bucket (adding priming sugar to bottling bucket during transfer) how long can I let the beer sit in the bottling bucket before I start to bottle it?

My neighbor and I both have 5gal batchs that we are planning on bottling this weekend and our intention is to santize equipment and transfer the beer into bottling buckets before our kids go to bed and then after the kids hit the sack we would get together and begin bottling our latest creation. Probably looking at 1-3 hours between transfering into bottling buckets and when we sit down to begin bottling. Bottling Buckets will be sealed with airlocks for venting.

Will we need to add more priming sugar to the bottling bucket for this to counteract the delay in bottling or are we good as is?
My neighbor and I are just looking to save time and not wake the kids since both of our fermenters are in the basement of our houses.

What are your thoughts....
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Vuarra]

What Revvy said, for the reasons he explained

 

[Revvy]

Don't do it....the minute you rack your beer with sugar in it it will begin fermenting the sugar to produce the co2 necessary to carbonate...which you want to trap in a bottle...

Besides if you are adding your sugar solution, it works best to put some into the bottom, the rack on top and then add some the rest of the solution when have the beer is racked into the bucket, that way you will gently integrate the sugar with the beer and not aerate it.

You can bottle in under an hour...so there is no need to "fuss" that way, and you could ruin your beer...exposing it to oxygen for too long...

Just start everything at once, and finish it all the way through....

If you look at the tips in my thread you will find ways to make the system as smooth and less time .consuming.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Like I said I can go from sanitizing my first bottle to rinsing out my carboy and bottling bucket in 1 hour.....filling and capping 2 cases of bottles.

If you want to do something before the kids go to bed, sanitize your bottles. But don't crack your fermenter or secondary and move your beer into the bottling bucket, until you can do it all the way through in one sitting....if that is difficult, than wait till you can, even if it is a couple weeks..your beer will only get better the longer you wait.....

Just bring both fermenters to one place and have a bottling party...the two of you working a nice system can bottle both your batches in no time at all....

 

[Redbeard5289]

Thanks Revvy for the information.

I figured it would be problematic in regards to the carbonation process but i needed to get it comfirmed by the experts.

Thanks again.