when to bottle

[mxyzptlk]

I've used as a rule of thumb bottling when bubbling slows to once every two minutes or slower, but I was wondering if this applies to "alterna-brews" such as beers brewed with maple syrup or brown sugar instead of malt extract which have much longer fermentation periods?

I've got one maple beer thats still bubbling pretty good after two months, (I've added a champagne yeast recently)

I am going to take a hydrometer reading before I bottle that one-

but my ginger beer is down to once every one minute, and it's been fermenting a month now.

Thanks

 

[rewster451]

I bottled a ginger/chocolate porter recently. It pretty much stopped bubbling, but we still had it on primary. So we racked it to secondary, and checked the gravity. It was still really high, so we added more yeast. I think the original yeast was suffocated by the chocolate and ginger. Anyway, it started going again, and we waited another two weeks to bottle. We tasted a sample before we added the priming sugar, and it was pretty mellow but will take a long time to bottle condition.
Moral:
Let it sit until you're absolutely sure it is done. But always check your gravity just to make sure. And go secondary. It is worth the effort.
I'm newly converted.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the point of all this is that maybe ginger slows the process of fermentation. I have no scientific theory to back this up, but since ginger kind of has a burn to it, I could believe that yeast might have a hard time growing in a ginger saturated environment.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I have used ginger a lot, but I must admit not in beer but in mead.

I haven't noticed any stuck fermentation, but then again I keep it in a secondary for months.

I don't think the ginger has any effect, but it's an interesting theory.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Well if ginger slows fermentation it would surely explain why my ginger ale is taking so much longer to ferement than my yarrow beer, which are both brown sugar based and I used very similar recipes for both. My recipe didn't specify a final gravity, and I didn't take a starting gravity, so I think I am kind of in the dark there. Also, I wasn't planning on a secondary, and I've run out of carboys to rack it off too, so I am just going to cross my fingers and hope it finishes soon!

 

[homebrewer_99]

I haven't read anything anywhere that it does so I can't say yeah or nay. Sorry.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Actually two batches I've done with dried ginger had rather fast fermentations, the only one that is going slow is the one I did with fresh.... i wonder if that could make a difference???

 

[andre the giant]

The way I do things, I leave beer in the secondary for several weeks. It may go a couple weeks or more without a bubble. I check the gravity, and if its below 1.014 for a lower alcohol beer, or below 1.020 for a stronger beer, I'll entertain the notion of bottling it. If the gravity is too high, I'll add more yeast and see what happens.

If you are still getting bubbles in the airlock, you're still getting fermentation. And if you bottle too soon, you run the risk of gushers or bottle bombs. The hydrometer is your first line of defense against "the bomb."

 

[rewster451]

We used fresh ginger, and I'm starting to think that's why it took so long. I take a hydrometer reading only when I rack, or when I'm ready to bottle, purely for posterity. I only bottle when the airlock stops. So far this has yielded well.

 

[mxyzptlk]

I just thought about it and I also used cream of tartar in this batch,
could that have contributed to the slow fermentation?

any thoughts out there would be apreciated -

as I would like to try this recipe again!

Thanks

 

[AHammer16]

I just thought about it and I also used cream of tartar in this batch,
could that have contributed to the slow fermentation?

any thoughts out there would be apreciated -

as I would like to try this recipe again!

Thanks

What did you use the cream of tartar for? PH?

You can get around all of the guesswork by using a hydometer, as everyone else has said. However you beer will probably benifit from sitting in the secondary for a couple of weeks after fermentation has stopped. This time allows some of the flavors to mellow. I just bottle after a couple of weeks in the secondary.

 

[mxyzptlk]

The cream of tartar was called for in the recipe-
I believe it was to give the beer some head.

 

[Schmitz]

Thanks for the responses guys. I just shook it up and pitched it at room temp.
Unless I have the time, I think I'll stick with my old way of using a dry starter over pitching liquid.