When to bottle

[nblocke]

I am brewing my first batch of beer ever, it is Octoberfest from True Brew brew. It has been in the primary for 13 days now. I am very excited for it, but how long should I wait to bottle it?


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[NTXBrauer]

You want to bottle when you have a stable gravity reading, taken over the course of a few days.

I normally take a reading at 2 weeks to see where my beer is at. Then I wait another week. If no change in the gravity reading, then bottle or keg. If your beer decreased a point or two, then wait 2 more days and take another reading. Once stable, it is ready.

 

[JimRausch]

That kit was my 1st brew. Surprisingly (to me) good.
As NTX recommended, Definitely check the SGs, but 2 weeks should be OK, and 3 even better. Oktoberfests,even the faux oktobers done with ale yeast, definitely get better with time.

 

[knelson13A]

I do pretty much the same as NTX. It helps to have a few brews under your belt so you have something to drink in the meantime, and you're not as impatient to get your beer into bottles!

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

I recommend racking it into a secondary-preferably a glass fermenter. This allows for the viewing of the beer. If the yeast is active, there will be suspended yeast moving in the beer (let the beer sit a few days and observe).

Those who draw off a pint to take gravity readings every day to see if it changed basically are wasting beer. Thats a bunch of bottles that are not there later. I guess thats OK if you brew on your own and are doing 10 gallons + per batch, but thats just me. My first batch, done from a kit, was racked into a 5 gallon glass carboy we already had lying around, and we never looked back.

 

[peterj]

I recommend racking it into a secondary-preferably a glass fermenter. This allows for the viewing of the beer. If the yeast is active, there will be suspended yeast moving in the beer (let the beer sit a few days and observe).

Those who draw off a pint to take gravity readings every day to see if it changed basically are wasting beer. Thats a bunch of bottles that are not there later. I guess thats OK if you brew on your own and are doing 10 gallons + per batch, but thats just me. My first batch, done from a kit, was racked into a 5 gallon glass carboy we already had lying around, and we never looked back.

I would not recommend racking your beer to a secondary, especially just so you can look at. Most beer doesn't need a secondary and you don't need to be able to see it through glass to know when to bottle. I know some people just like secondaries, but I'm not one of those people.

Also, who would take off a pint for a gravity reading? You only need about 3 or 4 oz at most. I agree that some people take too many, but if you did it the "accepted" way you would only take 2 readings which is at most 8 oz. And of course you always drink the samples!!!