Fat Yak Clone - Bottling Advice.

[MrGibbon]

Chaps, Ive had a fat yak clone in the fermenter for the last week, its now reading 1015.
I'll try the reading again tomorrow and see where we are at then.
Is its stable, I'll bottle it.

Should I put it in a secondary to condition for a couple of weeks?
OR
Should I bulk prime and bottle. If this is the go, how best to bulk prime and not stir up the trub? Siphon off to anther bottling bucket/container?

Also wondering about crash chilling to settle it out or filtering before I bottle. I have 1 micron and 5 micron filters available.
If I crash chill, will that affect the carbonation / bulk priming at all?

Thanks guys.

 

[Scottye]

Hey MrGibbon
1.015 seems a fraction high to me, however I don't know what the recipe was. I've had brews with 1kg of Malt and 300g of Carapils go down to 1.011, the only ones I've had that finish as high as 1.015 are Porters and Stouts.
When it comes to bulk priming the standard practice is to use a seperate FV or bucket, racking the beer onto the priming solution using a technique that doesn't cause any splashing.
A lot of people CC and bottle without issue, I haven't, and I don't know why you would want to filter out all that goodness; again I haven't but others may.

 

[carniebrew]

1015 sounds a little high to me gibbo, what was the exact recipe (incl yeast), and how many litres? I personally don't bother with a secondary for ales any more, but you're doing the right thing waiting to make sure the readings are stable.

If 1015 is where it's finished, I'm guessing it has a fair bit of maltodextrin in it?

EDIT: LOL, missed it by that much...

 

[MrGibbon]

Yeah, 1015 is only my first reading (after a week) I'll be taking another couple over the next few days, seeing if it drops to around 1012 before bottling.
I wouldn't bottle it at the moment.
Yeah, I'll rack to another fermenter with the priming mixture in it then, and bottle from there.
Thanks guys.

 

[carniebrew]

I generally put my fermenter up on top of an esky on my laundry bench, then run my hose from the tap down into the other fermenter sitting on the floor with the priming solution in it. Everything cleaned and starsan'd to the sheizen of course. Lay it out so the end of the tube in the empty FV is lying at the bottom, pointing sideways, gets a nice calm whirlpool going during the rack, mixing the priming sugar in as it fills.

Once in a small batch pale ale I just carefully poured the priming solution straight into the primary FV and gently stirred. The batch worked out fine, so either way seems to work, but I trust the racking more. Like VonScott I'm not worried too much about yeasties in the bottle, if you wait long enough they settle out eventually. Yesterday I cracked the last bottle of a hefe I bottled 3 months ago, forgot to upend it like I normally would, and I was surprised (and a little miffed) to see it was as bright as a commercial beer. No finings, no crash chill, and bottled straight from the primary (using carb drops back then).

 

[MrGibbon]

Good stuff.
Just one more thing.
If I do filter, or crash chill. Will that affect the carbonation in the bottles? I mean, will it filter out too much yeast and it would be able to carbonate?

Thanks

 

[carniebrew]

No, crash chilling won't drop enough yeast out to prevent carbonation. It will likely slow the carbonation down somewhat...so instead of being carbonated in 7-10 days, it could take a couple of weeks. But you basically can't drop enough out to stop it all together.