Bottling Situation..

[Kplum]

Alright.. Here is the deal... I use my guest bathroom which no one uses at all for my fermeting room.. No windows.. Its cool.. Perfect!! Currently I have about 14 gallons of beer in there.. 3 different styles.. My bottling day is supposed to be June 16th.. well my wife is having surgery about 200 miles away the 15th.. We will be at that hospital for at least 4 days.. then I will probably be taking care of my wife that next week and just wont have time to bottle.. the 16th is on a tuesday which is my scheduled bottling day.. My choices:

A) Bottle Sat. the 13th.. Secondary will be cut short by 3 days..

B) Bottle in a couple of weeks or whenever I can while my wife recovers from her surgery.. I am thinking 2 weeks from the 15th of June..

Any help will be appreciated... Just thinking of pros and cons on this one..

 

[TheChemist]

The risk of bottling too early is excessive suspended yeast - which results in overcarbonation, haze, or just a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. It depends how long your secondary usually is - if it's 2 weeks, go ahead and bottle, you should be fine. If it's 1 week, I'd say wait - you can give your beer a gentle shake to re-suspend the yeast before you bottle and all should be well. All the best!

 

[Yooper]

It really depends on how long the beer has already been in the fermenter, and if it's still in the primary. If it is, you should try to bottle within about 4 weeks from brewday. If it's already been racked, then you can wait a long time before bottling. Months, even 6-8 months or longer, if you want to.

 

[Nurmey]

Longer is almost always better. I've kept beers in secondary for 8 months and never had any problems carbonating or anything else.

 

[Kplum]

sweet.. thats what i wanted to know.. 2 styles.. have been racked to secondary.. the 2 week marker is the 16th.. one beer has not been racked.. solely in primary.. Kinda of an expierment beer.. its extra runoff from my stout.. thought I would just run another 5 gallons through it and boil it.. so thats what the primary is.. I will make the beer wait.. haha.. I love it..