Ignore the Instructions,. Do not bottle after 5-10 days!!!!!!

[Edcculus]

32 is a bit warm for beer. A cheap and easy solution is a "swamp cooler". You basically fill a bin or plastic tub with water and cool it down with frozen bottles. Draping a shirt over the fermenter will also help because of evaporative cooling. I'd aim to get your beer around 20 if at all possible.

 

[Orfy]

32 is a bit warm for beer. A cheap and easy solution is a "swamp cooler". You basically fill a bin or plastic tub with water and cool it down with frozen bottles. Draping a shirt over the fermenter will also help because of evaporative cooling. I'd aim to get your beer around 20 if at all possible.

#

Pointing a fan at the set up will help cool it as well.
I start getting concerened if mine goes over 23c

 

[Diablo]

16. In a sauce pan, bring 1 pint of water to a boil and add ¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 1/4 cups of dry malt extract (not table sugar). Boil for 3 minutes. Pour this mixture into your clean, sanitized bottling bucket.

Why not table sugar ? I always use it to carbonate. It's 100% fermentable and you only use a small quantity so I don't see the problem.

 

[Orfy]

If that's what you got then it's okay.

 

[humann_brewing]

I am scarred to bottle under 3 weeks, I can't imagine 5-10 days. How much clearing really happens in 5-10 days reallY if it takes 3 to ferment?

Actually some yeast are known to ferment fast, like WLP007 and also floccuates very high so I could see this yeast doing it jobs in 10 days to ferment out and clean up most of the way. I just don't want to try it. I have a 1.084 beer going now with WLP007, I didn't check with a hydrometer but I think it was done after about 48 hours. I had a big starter and lots of o2 though.

 

[Sophocles]

32 is a bit warm for beer. A cheap and easy solution is a "swamp cooler". You basically fill a bin or plastic tub with water and cool it down with frozen bottles. Draping a shirt over the fermenter will also help because of evaporative cooling. I'd aim to get your beer around 20 if at all possible.

If I use a "swamp cooler" would it matter if the tub is not deep? The thing is that 1/3 of the fermenter will be in the cooler and 2/3 out of it. Do you think it matters much?

 

[Edcculus]

Thats ok, just make sure to drape a shirt over the fermenter. Water will wick up the shirt and evaporate, which will help to cool the beer even more.

 

[Malticulous]

My 1.047 stout took about three days to ferment out. I bottled it on day 10. It was carbed by about day 15 and quite delicious before day 21. I'd have no problem serving it to anyone who likes stouts. Factors like yeast health, temperature control and proper water chemistry go a long way to making good beer and in less time. The fact is a screwed up brew probably will never taste as good as this one does. Time is too often used to cover up mistakes and people end up drinking stale beer. I don't want a 1.047 beer around for months.

 

[LSDracula]

The first beer i made i bottled after 7 days and carbed 2 weeks. Served it up to friends they loved it...
I think they were just being nice because I wasn't happy with it.
Drinking a bottle of graff now. 4 weeks in primary 3+ weeks in bottle...
Heavenly!
Got a batch of amber Belgian ale 4 weeks primary 2 weeks in bottle drinkable but could use some more time.

I'm fairly new to this 30 gallons so far...
Point is just say no and wait!
RDWHAHB!

 

[johndeere]

..........

 

[Marsdude]

Great thread. I have my first batch fermenting now. I was going to bottle it when the hydrometer readings were constant but now I think I will wait at least another week after that. I am brewing a simple amber ale from extract.

A quick question. After I bottle how long should it set in the bottles and what temperature should I keep the bottles at? I have a problem with keeping the temps down. I live in a log house with in-the-floor heating and it wants to keep the temp around 72F.

 

[Mobius570]

I found this thread, one day too late. I bottled my True Brew Oktoberfest kit after 8 days, which was last night. I did do 2 hydrometer reading over a 3 day period and they were the same. Also the kit said to store it in a cool dark place for 7 days then place in the fridge for another 3 weeks. Is this also not a good practice? Worst case scenario I'll know if it is good in 4 weeks.

Now that my primary is freed up, I'll start another batch now and this way I won't be in a hurry to bottle it and give it time in the primary. Thanks for the great info so far. This is my first batch so I'm a little nervous, even though I see a lot of RDWHAHB (or something like that). I guess for now I'll RDWHACB since I don't have any home brew now.

 

[cdif911]

quick question- how does one take hydrometer readings without aerating the beer?

 

[Yooper]

quick question- how does one take hydrometer readings without aerating the beer?

Just use a sanitized wine thief or even a turkey baster, and take out some beer, putting it into a test jar. When you get enough, just place the lid and airlock back on. There should be no pouring, stirring, etc, to aerate the beer.

 

[DoctorHops]

I use a turkey baster. Drink what is in the hydrometer. Don't return it to the fermenter. Marvel at how much better it will be after it is carbonated, cooled and aged.

 

[cdif911]

I'm very happy I caught this thread - we checked the hydrometer today (7th day was planning on bottling per kit instructions) and the reading looked to be 2.8 apv.. gonna give it at least another week now. glad we didn't blindly follow the directions

 

[BBKing]

The thing about those canned kits is that if you have a pipeline running low and dont mind the lack of creative control, they can be a god-send.

Since I've started giving my beer a month in primary (the non canned type that is) I've given the canned stuff AT LEAST 2 weeks sometimes as long as 3 weeks (depends on my pipeline). Its just become habit to me to give even the (what I consider to be) inferior stuff proper time.

As far as crappy instructions go, I suppose they're everywhere. I've done a lot of kits from midwest supplies and have come to the conclusion that a few have had bad instuctions.

Perfect example:

The very first kit of theirs I did was called "Honey Bee Ale" and they instructed the brewer to throw the 2 pounds of honey straight in the boil along with DME/LME. Come drinking time, there was hardly any hint of honey anything.

If I brewed that kit again (and I'm thinking about it) I would throw the honey in after flame out when the temp went down to about 165.

Point is, I think that by throwing the honey in to boil for an hour, it ruined all the flavor.

DISCLAIMER: I still think Midwest Supplies is great. Never had a problem with them.

 

[bubbleboy]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of brewing my first batch of beer... India Pale Ale, it's a Brewer's Best kit I picked up at my local home brew store. I'm on day 3 in the primary and the bubbling has already slowed to almost nothing. I was planning on bottling this weekend if the SG reading was good. Now I'm reconsidering based on this thread.

My question is, if leave it in the primary for another week or so, can I wait to take the SG reading until I'm ready to bottle? I guess I'm wondering if opening the top of the primary and exposing the beer to air just to check the SG reading could potentially cause contamination of some kind? Wouldn't leaving a cushion of CO2 in the primary be better?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Yooper]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of brewing my first batch of beer... India Pale Ale, it's a Brewer's Best kit I picked up at my local home brew store. I'm on day 3 in the primary and the bubbling has already slowed to almost nothing. I was planning on bottling this weekend if the SG reading was good. Now I'm reconsidering based on this thread.

My question is, if leave it in the primary for another week or so, can I wait to take the SG reading until I'm ready to bottle? I guess I'm wondering if opening the top of the primary and exposing the beer to air just to check the SG reading could potentially cause contamination of some kind? Wouldn't leaving a cushion of CO2 in the primary be better?

Thanks for any help!

Definitely don't bottle this weekend!

Take an SG reading about three- four days before you want to bottle. Then, another one on the day before you bottle. If they are the same, you're fine. Opening it to take the samples is fine.

Don't bottle a beer until it is 2 weeks old at a minimum. Three weeks is even better. It's hard to wait- but it's worth it!

 

[Fletch78]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of brewing my first batch of beer... India Pale Ale, it's a Brewer's Best kit I picked up at my local home brew store. I'm on day 3 in the primary and the bubbling has already slowed to almost nothing. I was planning on bottling this weekend if the SG reading was good. Now I'm reconsidering based on this thread.

My question is, if leave it in the primary for another week or so, can I wait to take the SG reading until I'm ready to bottle? I guess I'm wondering if opening the top of the primary and exposing the beer to air just to check the SG reading could potentially cause contamination of some kind? Wouldn't leaving a cushion of CO2 in the primary be better?

Thanks for any help!

We are practically neighbors. I guess you shopped at the Indian Trail location?

Your assumption is right, if you are going to wait another week, there's no reason to take a sample in the meantime. Take the sample 3 days before you bottle, then again right before you bottle to verify it hasn't changed. Everytime you open the lid, you expose the beer to contamination. It's just a fact of life. You have to open it from time to time, without risk there is no reward. But there is no reason in taking a risk when it isn't necessary.

 

[bubbleboy]

We are practically neighbors. I guess you shopped at the Indian Trail location?

Your assumption is right, if you are going to wait another week, there's no reason to take a sample in the meantime. Take the sample 3 days before you bottle, then again right before you bottle to verify it hasn't changed. Everytime you open the lid, you expose the beer to contamination. It's just a fact of life. You have to open it from time to time, without risk there is no reward. But there is no reason in taking a risk when it isn't necessary.

Thanks for the quick response! I'll do just that.

Yep, Indian Trail. They have free beer making lessons, so I put my name on a waiting list. They're just waiting for cooler weather...

 

[akthor]

I advocate the 4 week primary, I have never seen such clean clear beer! With no secondary

Like doing a secondary without the extra work

 

[Fletch78]

Thanks for the quick response! I'll do just that.

Yep, Indian Trail. They have free beer making lessons, so I put my name on a waiting list. They're just waiting for cooler weather...

There's an Athens beer brewing club also... it's right off 316 (for now... that may change). www.Athenshomebrewers.com

 

[Malticulous]

I tend to do 5-10 primary, 5-10 secondary with a cold crash and maybe finnings and 5-10 days in the bottle or keg. It usually works quite well in my brewery, but I still have to follow what the individual beer needs. Some need more time others need less. Anyone applying a blanket statement is wrong.

 

[stricklandia]

Thanks a bunch for this thread! My (first) beer has been in the primary for 7 days, and I was planning to bottle this week (per instructions). Now I'll leave it alone for a solid 2-3 weeks.

 

[stricklandia]

Homebrewing vs. winemaking may be apples to oranges to some degree, but I thought these comments from my father were worth sharing. (I am a newbie homebrewer, but he is a very experienced home winemaker.)

I normally rack off the gross lees a week or so after primary and then let it sit for a long time on the fine lees. There is some truth about the taste improving, but in wine making we also look at the period after primary is complete and and the wine sitting on the gross lees as a danger period. When primary is finished, no more C02 is being generated and if oxygen gets to the wine, spoilage can start. As soon as primary is finished, I flood with Argon to keep oxygen from the wine. I would think that with beer something in between would be appropriate - maybe on the lees for a week - ten days. Get familiar with the process before you try to fine tune the "taste."

Is there any correlation in homebrewing to the "danger period" he references?

 

[paul7]

lol, i made this mistake with my first three batches and they were all very low in alcohol, and only tasted ok. my 4th and 5th batches sat for a month and i think the warm flat f.g. samples taste better than the finished product of the first 3 batches

 

[basepaul21]

Great thread, thanks! My first batch has been in the (primary) fermentor now for about 9 days. When I test the SG, should I see tiny bubbles, or does that mean the yeast is still at work? My guess is that it's still fermenting, even though the readings were constant for 2 days (though a little high according to some help in another thread). Has anyone experienced these little bubbles in their tests?

 

[Turnba]

This seems as good a place for this question as anywhere (there were a few threads that seemed right!)

I'm on my third brew, this one being exactly the same as the last (a batch for my brother's birthday). However, after moving this brew for secondary fermentation there has been no activity to bubble the airlock. The previous batch bubbled very gently after a day in the second vessel. Assuming I leave it well alone for the week the recipe states should I expect there to be enogh live yeast to carbonate in the bottles? I'm scared I've killed off the yeast all together.

As a side note, there is a little bit of foam on the surface at the moment.

 

[ChandlerBang]

This seems as good a place for this question as anywhere (there were a few threads that seemed right!)

I'm on my third brew, this one being exactly the same as the last (a batch for my brother's birthday). However, after moving this brew for secondary fermentation there has been no activity to bubble the airlock. The previous batch bubbled very gently after a day in the second vessel. Assuming I leave it well alone for the week the recipe states should I expect there to be enogh live yeast to carbonate in the bottles? I'm scared I've killed off the yeast all together.

As a side note, there is a little bit of foam on the surface at the moment.

You don't have to post questions in other threads. If searching doesn't give the answer you can start a new thread.

As far as your beer....
It may very well be done or close to it. Airlock activity (or lack thereof) means NOTHING. Take a hydrometer reading several days apart, if they are the same it is done fermenting. I just leave it alone for a month and then take one reading before I transfer to keg or bottling bucket.

Right after the move you probably saw some activity because CO2 was bubbling out of solution simply from being moved.

You will have plenty of yeast left for bottling. A lot of brewers leave their beer in primary for weeks or even months. I would recommend at least 3 weeks before going to the bottle.