question about my nut brown?

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fleas

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ok ill try to keep this as short as posible if you need more info let me know. I started a nut brown ale on 4\26\07 and racked to my carboy on the 2nd of may, it looks like the color i want and my last hydrometer reading was 1.010 (SG of 1.051) i was thinking i should wait maybe 3 more days and bottle or is there a benefit of "aging" a little longer or are nut browns dont "fast"??? *it might help to know that its extract and steeping grains*

i have some other questions but thats for another thread

thanks fleas :drunk: :drunk:
 
I let mine sit in secondary for atleast two weeks, unless I'm out of beer.
 
The point of the secondary is to allow the flavors to marry and mellow without allowing the beer to sit on the primary yeast cake too long. This will also allow more yeast to drop out of solution and clarify the beer. I would try to exercise patience and let it be another week. It will be worth it
 
It is sometimes hard to be patient, but most of the time it is worth your while to wait. The longer a beer conditions, the more the flavors will mellow and the more clear the beer will be.
 
ya i have no problem waiting for a better beer however i really want to taste this finished beer coz its my first recipe i made on my own (with some hints from my LHBS) :) but it will be better in the long run so wait i shall. for my next brews how do i know how long to let them sit in the secondary?

:off: and does any one know any thing on priming with honey? i thought it would go good with my next batch

thanks for the help, fleas :drunk:
 
A good guideline is the 1-2-3 rule
One week in primary, two in secondary and 3 in the bottle
(followed by emptying the entire batch in 8 days)

Edit: sorry I didnt know you were talking wheat...I would say 2 weeks in primary, bottle and begin "testing" two weeks after that to see if it is ready yet
 
i am very familiar with the 123 rule but i heard that wheat beers only take 10 days or so in the primary and then bottle (and stay cloudy) so i didnt know if any other beers had less\more time in there

fleas
 
You could bottle it fleas, but the actual time it takes to be 'ready' probably won't change at all. Tbh, I only secondary on things over 1.065, lagers or if I add something to it (whatever the case may be). Like many including myself have pointed out before, conditioning in the bottle and conditioning in a secondary carboy both achieve similar effects but have some subtle differences save for the case of clarifying something 'muddy' in which case a secondary really helps. All of my brews eventually end up settling out given enough time.

One thing about a secondary though, which is nice is that you can just leave it go in there until you are ready to bottle (even for long stretches of time even). So it makes things convenient especially when you are juggling different activities and can't make time to bottle.
 
fleas said:
:off: and does any one know any thing on priming with honey? i thought it would go good with my next batch

I haven't done it myself, but my understanding is that it is much less exacting than using say Corn sugar because the actual potential fermentable sugar is much more variable...in other words your carbonation might not be what you were expecting when all is said and done. That and it takes much longer for the yeast to finish the honey than cs or dme.
 
Since you are using a carboy, you can see if the beer has cleared or not. If it has cleared, go ahead and bottle, but I'd still wait a good 2- 3 weeks in the bottle before drinking.
 
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