Bottled my first today

[smitty8202]

As the title says I bottled my first beer today. Have it a try. I gotta say tasted pretty good even though it was warm. Can't wait to try it when it's cold. So my question is do you think it will be ready to drink in a week. I plan on putting one in the fridge Saturday and if I like it I'll put some more in for the game Sunday.

 

[Hello]

What was the ABV? It could be pretty carbonates in a week but plan for 2.

 

[smitty8202]

Honestly no idea my final gravity was around 1.02. Original gravity was really high at 1.09.

 

[buzzerj]

As a rule I let a bottled beer carbonate 2 weeks at room temp (70 degrees F) then put it in the refrigerator and it comes into the zone in the second week. General rule but it depends on the beer style itself too. But first it will taste good because it's yours and second it will taste better with time. If you don't like it, give it a few more days. With the big beer you did (9% ABV) give it more time rather than less. Don't rush it. Prost.

 

[unionrdr]

With a 1.09X OG, that's a big beer that'll take longer to carb & condition at 70F or more. Then a week or two fridge time to give any chill haze a chance to form & settle while it gets co2 into equilibrium between the head space & the beer. Bigger beers generally take longer than the usual 3 weeks at room temp & one week fridge time of an average gravity beer. Patience is needed in this step as well.

 

[beergolf]

For a beer that big it may take a month or even 2 to get good carbonation. Keep the bottles at 70 (or even slightly higher). Check one at a month.

The toughest thing to learn about brewing is the art of patience. You can drink this beer after a week, but after you figure out that it will taste much better after some time, you will be pissed you drank up the beers when they were too young.

BTW. congrats on your first brew. Welcome to the addiction..... er I mean hobby.

 

[dude3516]

So I did some post stalking on you. Are you sure you took a correct hydro reading? 1.09X seems a bit high for a Pale Ale that came out of a kit.

At any rate if you did a 5 gal batch then just pull a bottle every 7-10 days and give it a taste test.

 

[smitty8202]

So I did some post stalking on you. Are you sure you took a correct hydro reading? 1.09X seems a bit high for a Pale Ale that came out of a kit.

At any rate if you did a 5 gal batch then just pull a bottle every 7-10 days and give it a taste test.

Stalker. Haha. That's what I was thinking. And for it to go from 1.09 og to 1.02 fg in about 3 weeks seems like a big drop to me. I will pop one open on Saturday and see what it tastes like cold. Who knows I may get surprised.

 

[JohnnyBrewGood]

Congratz. Bet it will taste great. If you are anything like me, try one at the first week mark.

Will it be perfect? 0 chance it will be perfect. But it will do two things, 1 it will let you see how it has changed in only a week, and secondly it will show you how the beer progressed. Same thing really. But unless you try the one week old beer, you cannot compare. But like others have said, only put one on ice that first week.

JB

 

[william_shakes_beer]

The "next" batch is the one that's going to be perfect. I always have thoughts on what I want to do the next time i brew a batch.

As a start point ABV=(OG-SG)*1.33. That was dervived by me taking an average of several table calculations in the back of How to Brew by John Palmer. I don't know where he got his data from. Therefore (1.09-1.02)*1.33=.0931 or 9% alcohol.