I have my first batch of home brew in the basement in my 5 gal fermenter. I have an extra refrigerator I can use to chill my brew. At what point is it a good time to chill? Is it before I transfer to a secondary or after? When I do chill, how long do I let it chill and should I keep the air lock on? Like I said, It's my first brew and I really dont want to screw it up. Thanks for any advice you can give.
whats the best way to chill and bottle?
- Thread starter B-Stubrew
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Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
What is the brew? If using ale yeast, like an ale, porter, or stout variant, then you have a 99% chance of not getting any benefit from racking to a bright tank. Most likely, you have better results leaving it on the yeast cake for 2-4 weeks (depending on the OG, yeast used, and temperatures it's fermenting at) and then bottling it up. Take a SG sample, then taste said sample, after 2 weeks on the yeast cake. Do it again 3+ days later. IF the SG is identical (100% identical) then chances are, you've reached you FG... Then it's a matter of waiting for it to taste right, and ready for being bottled. Right as in no off flavors, or flavors that were not designed into the brew.
Anytime I brew from a recipe (especially since learning better) I ignore the directions that come after pitching the yeast. This is especially true for anything using ale yeasts. The only time I'll deviate from this is when racking onto, or off of flavor elements and needing to halt the contribution from a previous flavor element.
If you really won't want to F this one up, and it's not a lager, or a brew that REQUIRES racking, leave it on the yeast. A few extra weeks will not do any harm to your brew... I just bottled a batch that was on the yeast for almost 6 weeks... Zero issue. I've had a couple of batches that went a month on the yeast so far... Came out great. If I had done that with my first couple of batches, I can only imagine how much better they would have been.
Anytime I brew from a recipe (especially since learning better) I ignore the directions that come after pitching the yeast. This is especially true for anything using ale yeasts. The only time I'll deviate from this is when racking onto, or off of flavor elements and needing to halt the contribution from a previous flavor element.
If you really won't want to F this one up, and it's not a lager, or a brew that REQUIRES racking, leave it on the yeast. A few extra weeks will not do any harm to your brew... I just bottled a batch that was on the yeast for almost 6 weeks... Zero issue. I've had a couple of batches that went a month on the yeast so far... Came out great. If I had done that with my first couple of batches, I can only imagine how much better they would have been.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Your making your first batch as a lager? Hope you have a temperature controller on that fridge... Not sure if you need to rack off the cake even for a lager... You'll need to have someone else that's made lagers chime in... I'm not in a position to even try to lager where I am.
If the lager is currently fermenting at 50 degrees or so, at about day 10 you can raise the temperature to 60 degrees for 48 hours, and check and make sure you're at the final gravity. If you are, that is the time to rack the beer to the secondary. Lower the temperature 5 degrees per day, if possible, until you are lagering at 34 degrees. A traditional airlock may "suck back" the liquid in it due to the temperature change, so keep an eye on it and make sure you have vodka or something like that in it so it won't harm the beer. It can lager for about 6-8 weeks or so at 34 degrees. Then it can be bottled.
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