carbonation and waiting!

[BootYtRappeR]

I must admit I'm guilty of opening my beer too soon. I just can't help it and besides I've learned alot from experiencing the conditioning process this way.

Week 1 = flat, no head whatsoever/taste was ok
Week 2 = still flat, 1/4 inch head/tasted better
Week 3 = carbing up nicely, 1 inch head/taste is dramatically better.
Looking forward to weeks 4 and 5! It will all be gone after that!

It's so great to get off work and relax, not worry and drink MY OWN homebrew!

Needless to say i'm hooked!

Do most of you wait or do you like to see how everything is progressing?

 

[Truble]

I am bottling my first batch tonight, and I can anticipate a difficult waiting period. I plan on testing it after a week, though, "just to see"...

I also plan on having some of my favorite Storeboughts on hand to nurse me through till the drinkeration stage of my brew.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I usually crack the first one at 10 days...usually it's pretty well carb'ed by then. If I've got carbonation at 2 weeks, I start working my way through them.

 

[AHammer16]

I've learned to wait at least 2 weeks. It is amazing how the flavor and aroma improves w/ just a couple of weeks of ageing.

 

[Waldo]

I have to be careful, my first batch went into 15 1 liter bottles and 3 12oz bottles. I sampled one 12oz after a week and it was flat, that leaves me with only two sample bottles left so I guess it will be one at 2 weeks and the other at 3 weeks.

I vowed not to make the same mistake on my second batch, it will be bottled in.

12 22oz bottles

12 12oz bottles

6 1 liter bottles

depending on how much is left I'll add a 12 or 22 ounce bottle.

 

[Walker]

This is pretty much what I do with bottling.

Suggestion: fill the 12 oz bottles last (or at least save an extra couple to fill last). When I bottled one of my recent batches, I didn't do this. All of my clean 12oz'ers were full and I got down to the end of the batch in the bucket and only had enough beer to partially fill a 0.5L bottle (probably would have nicely filled a 12 oz bottle.)

I ended up being forced to drink that last bit flat and sweet.

-walker

 

[Truble]

I am waiting on some free 16 and 22oz flippers from a family friend, so I didn't want to purchase any larger bottles. Haven't gotten them yet, and I need to bottle tonight so I will be filling an army of 12oz......First time bottling too so it should be interesting.