Need advice: first brew!

[sandboxx]

Hi all:

I've been perusing the forums for a bit now since I developed an interest in brewing and have learned a lot! Thanks!

I have a few questions at this point in my brewing adventure:

A little background...I'm a home winemaker who has been making wine from kits for about three years now. As I had most of the equipment to start brewing I decided to give it a go. The first brew I selected was an extract amber ale, using a recipe that I got at my LHBS.

I'm about 2 weeks in from brewing the beer and I have some questions. The intent of this brew was to have it done in two weeks to serve at a big BBQ I'm having (in hindsight I should have given myself 6-8 weeks instead of 4). The OG was 1.060. My fermentation was done out in my garage, which meant that the temp was fluctuating some between maybe 55-70 degrees. After a week it was down to 1.031. It tasted great...clean with no offtastes that I could discern. According to the directions I got from my LHBS, I was to rack to a secondary between 7-10 days. As it was 7, I opted to do it and figured the secondary would polish off the other 15-20 points I had to go (first mistake was that the airlock was still bubbling > 1 per minute, and I racked off a heavily flocculant yeast (British Ale) that was fermenting from the bottom up...I realize this now). There's a decent bunch of yeast sediment sitting on the bottom as I was conscientious to pull some good yeast up when I was racking as i recognized that my yeasties still had work to do, but fermentation naturally slowed down. The secondary is a 5 gallon better bottle, however there's only about 4.5 gallons of beer in it. I was initially concerned about the large headspace in the secondary, although was reassured that as long as I still had fermentation and I left it alone, it would be OK.

For the last week, the airlock has continued to bubble regularly with bubbles every 15-30 seconds. I tested the gravity today, and it was down to 1.022. Still tastes great...actually its even cleaner and smoother than it was the first week. I'm loving the taste, but pretty sure I'm going to miss my schedule. I had intended to bottle this weekend, giving myself 2 weeks of bottle conditioning to carbonate the beer, however, I'm leary of bottling now before it's down to 1.010-1.015 before adding priming sugar (with 2 kids below 4 years of age, I want to avoid bottle bombs at all costs). I moved it in to a bathroom tub to get a more constant ~75 degree temperature, and I also stirred up all the yeast on the bottom of the secondary.

So..given that, what is your advice for what I should do now. I was planning at one point or another to go the corny keg route, but had bought some swing-top bottles and I was intending to bottle this batch. If I want to serve this beer in two weeks, do I need to get on ordering the the keg route now, or is there still hope for my bottling plan? Additionally, should I be concerned about the large headspace in the 5 gallon better bottle, particularly if stirring up the yeast once per day (or something similar) is a part of the suggested routine?

I'm excited about this brew with how it tastes right now (i.e. I'm hooked). I know I should have given it more time...buuuuut hindsight is 20/20, right?

Thanks again, and I look forward to becoming a more active member of the community going forward!

Sean

 

[KevinM]

I think many leave their beer on the primaries for up to a month before, if ever, secondarying.
I don't think stirring will really do much for this situation. It has too much of a chance to increase oxygen content at a time you don't want to do this, and unlike wines, you don't necessarily want to remove the residual co2.

I'm of the opinion that you should keg, or at least get a co2 tank, a carbonator cap and some plastic 2 liter soda bottles. Since you would need at least 3 weeks to carbonate the beer. 2 weeks tends to be too short. You'll see a lot of people worrying that their beer may be undercarbonated because they open it at 2 weeks, but they realize it's fine after 3.
Kegging, you could be carbonated in under 24 hours. (or 2 minutes per 2 liter bottle.)

 

[hector]

Which Yeast strain did you use ?

I suppose it is a slow fermenting Yeast .

Hector

 

[sandboxx]

It was White Labs British liquid yeast. Dumped the vial into the fermenter.

If I had done it differently I would have left the beer in the primary until I bottled. Alas, for my newbie beermaking mistake...fortunately, the beer still tastes great, although yes, I'm very concerned about doing anything more to the beer due to oxygen and contamination concerns.

 

[Brewmiser]

Kegging would be the ez thing to do...
So your 2 weeks away from drinking & it's only @ 1.022? I would check it in 3 days & if not done by then I would say buy a keg system. you'll thank yourself later for buying a keg system anyway....

 

[jroot]

Unfortunately the learning curve is usually by trial and error with all of us. Since its been fermenting already for several days and since C02 is heavier than air the likelyhood of there being oxygen in the Better Bottle carboy as long as it has not been opened to the air is next to zero and shaking won't matter. Shaking does however reintroduce the yeast and trub from the bottom back into suspension and the clarity of the finished product will take longer. You can carbonate the batch with C02 in a day or so using a corny keg as long as it is COLD and you intermittently shake the keg but natural carbonation I'm afraid will take at least 10 days.

 

[osagedr]

I got my start the exact same way you did--wine kits then into brewing.

This is not what you wanna hear, but...forget about this being ready for your BBQ. It'll suck, your guests won't be impressed, and you'll have a negative impression of your first brew.

Pick up some beer for your event. Whatever's cheap around where you live will be much, much better than a rushed beer. If anyone asks you can just tell them your beer is doing great but will be much better with a little more time.

If you choose not to heed this advice then your best bet is to keg it. Wait for it to finish, which it should do very rapidly at 75 degrees. Rack it carefully into a keg 5 or 7 days before you want to serve. You can carbonate it faster than that if you must, but a week will give you plenty of time. So if you MUST serve this beer in two weeks I think you are okay as long as you're going to keg it. Bottle conditioning for two weeks likely wouldn't have been enough.

Good luck!