When to Bottle

[Snow4phil]

I am brewing my first 5 gallon batch of extract beer. I did the blonde ale from morebeer.com. The instructions say allow 14 days before bottling (for fermentation and settling). Fermentation stopped about 7. I kept it in the carboy until 10 days then transferred to secondary. Its been in there 5 days now. Is it to soon to bottle? There is nothing going on in the carboy.

I am just hoping that it is, I am wanting to take some on a trip in 3 weeks.

Thanks,

Phil

 

[NTXBrauer]

Once you have a stable gravity reading, you are ready to bottle. Measure your SG today, then again in a couple days. If you see no change in your reading, then on to bottling. You should be getting close. Cheers!

 

[boydster]

Sounds like it is probably ready, but the only way to be sure is with a hydrometer as NTXBrauer pointed out. 2 readings over 3 days that are unchanged should be a good indicator that it's ready to package.

Next time though, keep a couple things in mind. First, most beers don't need a secondary even though kit instructions are notorious for still including that bit. Unless you are bulk aging (for several months), adding oak, fruits, or other additives, you really don't need to worry about using a secondary. Second, if you are going to use a secondary, you really want the beer to be at final gravity before you transfer. By moving it early, you are risking having a stalled fermentation. A stalled fermentation can look an awful lot like a beer that is done fermenting, but when you prime and bottle it the yeast wake back up and eat all the priming sugar as well as the rest of the sugars they neglected to eat during primary fermentation, resulting in overcarbed beer (and potentially bottle bombs).

 

[Snow4phil]

Thanks for the feedback, I will take a look at the readings.

Whats funny is even the instructions say to just keep it in the same carboy. Sometimes there is too much information out there when researching. Oh well. Lets hope there are no bottle bombs!!

 

[unionrdr]

What you saw when the rapid bubbling stopped was the end of initial fermentation. It'll then slowly,uneventfully creep down to Fg. Then give it another 3-7 days to clean up any by products of fermentation & settle out clear or slightly misty.
So it might be done or a point or three away. Check it with a hydrometer,wait till the third day & check again. If the numbers match,it's done.

 

[Snow4phil]

Using priming sugar, should 2 weeks in the bottle be enough time to Carb?

 

[boydster]

Keep it at 70F or a little higher. 3 weeks @ 70 is kind of the gold standard when bottling. What was your OG? A low OG brew tends to carb a little quicker than a high OG one.

 

[Snow4phil]

OG was 1.048

 

[boydster]

It's possible. Just don't let 'em get cold or it will slow down the process.

For best results, you want to give them 3 weeks at 70 and then another 5-7 days in the fridge to get all the CO2 into solution - that makes for more consistent, longer-lasting carbonation.