do i need to bottle tonight?

[beermebaby]

I brewed my first batch this saturday ( true brew IPA kit) last nigth and today I have had no action in my air lock so i took a reading and I am at the recomeded reading of 1.014. So should I bottle or can i wait?

 

[woodstone]

What up, MA! Your fine. I'd give it a couple more days to be sure fermentation is done and then bottle or better yet, transfer to a secondary (use glass), which you can leave for literally weeks (or for lagers that will be kept cool, months) before you bottle.

Bottling during the week sucks...but you do want to get the beer off of what ever settles in your primary within the first week or sooner...the beer will be that much better, but really...one or two or three days extra is not going to kill the brew and you are not very likely to taste the diff. Good luck, it will taste fine! :rockin:

 

[TheJadedDog]

Woodstone: What's the recipe on your chocolate rasberry porter?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

do i need to bottle tonight?

You almost never NEED to be in a hurry to bottle. Certainly someone will come up with an exception and post it here, but mostly, RDWHAHB. Another week or two in the primary probably wouldn't hurt your beer a bit. It's always a good idea to make sure that the gravity has stopped dropping before bottling, and it takes a couple of days to verify that with your hydrometer. You can also just time the airlock bubbles - greater than one minute apart is probably safe to bottle.

Remember, predicted OG and FG are estimates, and your hydrometer is just a tool to monitor progress. Some guys don't even use one, they just patiently wait for fermentation activity to cease, then bottle.

What am I really saying? RDWHAHB

 

[woodstone]

TheJadedDog...I'll post in the recipies forum in a bit...it was not one of my best, but something I'd do again and tweek. I had a bunch of stuff left over and wanted to do something "big". It has aged well after almost 8 months...it is not the type of beer you'd have 10 at a time...I think I have only a few left...most of my friends loved it.

Cheers.

 

[beermebaby]

hey neighbor (woodstone), thanks guys for your input i apprecite your help.