Help! Can I bottle this beer?

[bigbadbrews]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and brewing so first up thanks to everyone as just reading through posts here has helped a lot!

My 2nd brew which is still in the fermenter is as follows:

1 can coopers heritage lager.
500g crystal steeped for 1 hr at 67 C.
1kg brew booster (500g dextrose, 250g light malt, 250g corn syrup)
dry hopped on day 5 with 24g cascade.
filled to 23L

The brew is now in its 8th day of fermentation and the bubbling slowed down to just about nothing a day ago. It has been at a constant 22 C all through fermentation. I have had stable SG of 1010 (or there abouts) for 3 days now. Can I bottle this beer or do I have to wait for the air lock to stop completely? The last thing I was is my coopers largies going off in the garage!

Cheers

Dave

 

[wbosher]

Ignore the airlock, and trust your hydrometer...bottle 'em up.

 

[bigbadbrews]

Cheers mate I think I will. That said is there any risk to leaving beer in the fermenter for too long? E.g. could all my yeast die leaving me with not enough to complete secondary fermentation and carbonation?

 

[QldKev]

There's no issues with leaving it on the yeast cake for a while, but I would not start exceeding a month or so. I'd leave it a couple more days to allow it to clear up more.

 

[syl]

It would be of benefit to leave it longer for the yeast to clean up after themselves.

Give it 1 more week then bottle it!

 

[mash head]

I have a question about the above recipe. What is to be gained from steeping the crystal malt alone?? As I understand it crystal malts are low in diastic power and have pretty well been converted to sugars during the kilning process.
To the original question it will not do any harm to leave it in the fermenter a bit longer. Your sg reading seems stable but without doing the sums on fermentabillity and knowing if you had temp control or which strain of yeast, I would sit back a while.

 

[squirt in the turns]

I have a question about the above recipe. What is to be gained from steeping the crystal malt alone?? As I understand it crystal malts are low in diastic power and have pretty well been converted to sugars during the kilning process.

No diastatic power is required as there are no starches left to be turned into sugars. The starches are already converted to mostly unfermentable, dextrinous long-chain sugars inside the grain, which have been crystallised by the kilning process. Steeping crystal malts adds colour, flavour, body and some sweetness to the wort.

Crystal malt is used in a full mash for the same purposes, although it doesn't need to be mashed, which is why it's often used in kit and extract beers.

 

[mash head]

Thanks. If you don't ask you don't know.

 

[manticle]

Sounds finished, especially with those ingredients but as mentioned - extra conditioning time is a good thing so look at it again in 5 days. If gravity has dropped from 1010 then wait again but I doubt it will.

 

[mash head]

Still asking questions. I don't think I asked the right one. Is there an advantage of running a full mash schedule for crystal rather than just dunking it in some hot water for a short period?

 

[QldKev]

Still asking questions. I don't think I asked the right one. Is there an advantage of running a full mash schedule for crystal rather than just dunking it in some hot water for a short period?

No, no advantage

 

[mash head]

Sorry to hijack the post. Hopefully the OP learnt something also.
Thanks Kev I think that was the question I meant to ask the first time but wasn't specific enough. It is a learning tool though teaching new brewers the process of mashing.

 

[wbosher]

Ooops, didn't read that very well did I.

Only saw the bit about gravity reading stable for 3 days, not the bit saying it's only 8 days old. As the others have said, a few more days will do it good. I generally leave mine in the fermenter for a minimum of two weeks, that allow the fermentation and gives the yeast time to do it's house keeping afterwards.

Also, if you have the ability to do it, two or three days at around 0 degrees will also improve your beer even more.

 

[JDW81]

Still asking questions. I don't think I asked the right one. Is there an advantage of running a full mash schedule for crystal rather than just dunking it in some hot water for a short period?

As per Kev above, no advantage. You could steep it in cold water in the fridge over night and still have pretty much the same result. The purpose of mashing (as I'm sure you're aware) is to get the enzymes in the grains going to break down the starches into sugars various (depending of the mash temp). Crystal (and others) are already converted so all you need to do is rinse the sugar out of the grain, give it a boil and hey presto, some extra flavour, maltiness and sweetness into you beer.

 

[bigbadbrews]

Thanks for all the advice! I've decided to fight the urge and to leave it for another 5 days or so. Unfortunately I don't have the fridge space necessary to crash chill. As for why did I steep the grain? Pretty much just to get some practice with mashing so I can move into mini-mashes. Being only my 2nd brew I had no idea what diastic power was, just having fun

 

[mash head]

Wasn't having a go at you. I read the recipe and assumed that you had copied it from elsewhere, but it did raise questions in my mind. Thanks to others chipping in I realised what I thought was true is true.