Racking and bottling my first beer

[deerbarth]

After primary fermentation has ended should I still sanitize racking cane and bottling bucket before racking?

 

[evrose]

Yes.

 

[funnycreature]

After primary fermentation has ended should I still sanitize racking cane and bottling bucket before racking?

I usually keep my sanitizer in the vessel that I need next and move the sanitizing solution to yet another vessel with the racking cane so everything is sanitized. Why would you NOT do it?

 

[deerbarth]

I have heard after primary fermentation the brew is resistant to contamination. Was checking to see if this was valid. Better to sanitize and be safe then sorry

 

[funnycreature]

I have heard after primary fermentation the brew is resistant to contamination. Was checking to see if this was valid. Better to sanitize and be safe then sorry

Whoever told you that is not well informed. There are plenty of microorganisms that would love to live in your beer! If you give mold an opportunity it will grow on virtually anything, and so do many bacteria. Sanitation does not equal sterilization but at least you'll have the peace of mind that you reduced the contamination potential to acceptable levels.

 

[deerbarth]

Also how do you normally add your priming sugar? I have one recipe that says to boil it in one cup water before adding to racked beer. And another that says add priming sugar to racked beer. Does it depend on recipe? Or does it not matter?

 

[funnycreature]

I boil my sugar in about a cup of water, let it cool down and dump it into the bottling bucket. I then rack the beer on top and give it a swirl with the cane once done to make sure it's mixed properly. It has two benefits:

1. Your sugar is sanitized
2. sugar solution is more homogeneously dissolved in your beer than sugar crystals.

 

[zippy84]

I don't even bother with a bottling bucket. I just dump the priming solution into the primary, give it a gentle stir and give it a day to settle back down.

Saves the hassle of having to do an extra sanitize and rack. It also cuts out unnecessarily disturbing the beer, unwanted aeration and possibly the chance introducing new nastys.

 

[deerbarth]

after bottling, do you refrigerate? or just let it condition at room temp?

 

[DocScott]

after bottling, do you refrigerate? or just let it condition at room temp?

Let it sit for 3 weeks at 70 degrees. Then fridge a bunch that you plan on drinking. Many will tell you refrigerate for 1 week to get co2 dissolved into the beer better.

Bottle conditioning takes time!! I think you'd do we'll to read the bottling sticky on this forum

 

[fixitoscar]

also don't forget to sanitize your bottles and caps