How time sensitive is bottling?

zagmund

First timer here . . .

According to the instructions I'm supposed to bottle when the specific gravity is the same for two days in a row - which it is now.

The problem is that I'm unlikely to be able to get to do the bottling for a few days. My gut tells me that the brew will quite happily sit there doing nothing much for a couple of days without issue until I get to bottle it at the weekend. Is this correct, or should I try to get to bottle it sooner rather than later?

z

Bogwoppit

It'll be grand for a week or so.

BeerNut

zagmund wrote: »

According to the instructions

Kit rule no. 1: always ignore the instructions. They'll steer you wrong on almost everything.

Give your beer at least two weeks in the fermenter, and it'll be fine for four or five. You have more to lose by rushing a beer than leaving it too long.

thelaoislad

Correct ..
2 weeks is my rule now, based on Beernut's initial advice..
I have syphoned it into 2nd Fv , bottling bucket, after 9-10 days to help remove sediment , then bottled few days later on day 14 to 16 ..
Im really only able to bottle on w.ends , so I stick to the 14 day rule , + or - a day (usually plus 2 days if i brew on a Friday , then bottle sun 2 weeks time)
worked so far

RasTa

I wouldn't even bother moving to a secondary for at least a month.

Knifey Spoony

I wouldn't even bother moving it to secondary at all. The risks far out weigh the benefits.

thelaoislad

i know bout the risks, oxygen & contamination , but the one kit I didnt put into 2nd for a few days was terrible ..muntons cervase beer..
maybe not all the fault of sediment carry over , maybe i should have used brewing sugar instead of enhancer.. i dont know , but thats what the lads in HBC told me ..yet they sold me the enhancer with the kit !
other 5 kits survived well, and almost all gone now ..
bottled a bitter last w end , initial taste going into bottle seemed ok , and its carbonating v well now going on the one plastic bottle in the batch .. v hard to compress after 6 days..
so I 'd say that one is safe too.

I'll skip out on 2nd for the next lot , an ale , and see what happens ..
but yea, there is an extra risk

drumswan

There is no need for secondary with any kit, its a waste of time and introduces unnecessary risk to the process.

zagmund

OK - thanks for the feedback folks. I'll let it sit another couple of days until I have time to bottle it.

z

zagmund

I bottled most of it this morning, so now I'll store it away for a while and wait. The mix started off at 23 litres, but after testing it each day for a couple of days (according to the instructions) it was more like 21 or so. The result is that I've a little over 40 500ml bottles.

On the subject of bottling - what's the story with the stuff in bottom of the barrel? How far down can you go before you end up with something that's more sediment than beer? And what do you do with the sediment? It looks and smells quite yeast-y, so is it re-usable for baking something? Or do I just empty it down the drain?

Thanks,

z

BeerNut

zagmund wrote: »

How far down can you go before you end up with something that's more sediment than beer?

All the way down. When bottled it'll drop to the bottom of the bottle so won't end up in your glass as long as you pour carefully.

zagmund wrote: »

what do you do with the sediment?

Just ditch it. Some brewers throw fresh wort on top of it as it's very able to handle high gravities, but you need to know what you're doing there.

WallsToTheBall

You can harvest it, clean it and store it if you are so inclined. Having a few starters of a load of different strains of yeast in the freezer is a pretty cool long-term goal for me in the future. Especially considering that good yeast is not that cheap, €3-4 for a packet easily.

If you google "cleaning & freezing trub" there are plenty of good descriptions of the process.

zagmund

Thanks for all the info to date folks.

Next question . . . how sensitive is the temperature for secondary fermentation? I had the temperature up at ~21 for the primary fermentation and the secondary is at ~18 degrees at the moment, but it looks to be falling below 18 as you can see from the graph.

Would I be better moving it back to the 21 degrees room (beside the heating) or is it OK to fall below 18 degrees? You can see where I bottled the brew and moved it on Saturday by the change in the blue line. Ignore the red line in the graph.

Thanks,

z

BeerNut

Should be fine. Leave it alone.

Knifey Spoony

zagmund wrote: »

Thanks for all the info to date folks.

Next question . . . how sensitive is the temperature for secondary fermentation? I had the temperature up at ~21 for the primary fermentation and the secondary is at ~18 degrees at the moment, but it looks to be falling below 18 as you can see from the graph.

Would I be better moving it back to the 21 degrees room (beside the heating) or is it OK to fall below 18 degrees? You can see where I bottled the brew and moved it on Saturday by the change in the blue line. Ignore the red line in the graph.

Thanks,

z

Just out of interest, how are you recording and graphing the beer temperature?

zagmund

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

Just out of interest, how are you recording and graphing the beer temperature?

I'm using the outdoor/remote temperature sensor from an Oregon Scientific weather monitor I got a while back. It's similar to this - http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/silver-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-forecaster-n96fy

Out of the box the remote sensor radios the temperature back to the base station. In order to record it you just need to hook it up by USB to a spare computer and run something like weewx - http://www.weewx.com/ For the brew I attached the remote sensor to the outside of the container. For the secondary fermentation, I just left it in the general vicinity of the bottles.

z