Kilkenny Clone #2

[sm0902]

My initial topic is here:

Just wanted to post an update. I pretty much thought I'd bottled too early ... and some eleven days later I have proof I did. I had 2 bottles explode so I decided to open the rest and put it down as a bad experience.

Now that I've had a bit more time to ponder ... I have more questions ...

1) If a bottle is (let's assume) close to exploding but is opened before-hand ... does the glass weaken and make it vulnerable to exploding next time I use it?

more importantly ...

2) Let's say I've had readings of: 1034, 1030, 1026, 1022, 1020, 1018, 1016, 1015, 1015 over 8 days - brewing at a pretty constant 21 degrees. The 'rule' as I understand is to bottle when you have two identical gravity readings in 2 days (or a 24 hour period). I decided to leave it and 4 days later it was 1011.

I'm thinking now the best thing is to just wait 3+ days after I think it has finished and see what happens ... but what does this say for the rule of bottling after two identical readings ... and why if the temperature has remained constant does it 'appear' to stop and restart??

 

[timmy]

another good reason to rack.

You can rouse up the yeast to drop down an extra few points.

If when you bottle you rouse it a bit more, then add sugar then you are basically over priming.

 

[Stuster]

That rule is definitely a bit misleading. If you have an OG of 1048 you can expect to end up with (very roughly) an FG of 1012. So 75% of the sugars (appear to) have been converted. This is called the attenuation, you'd have 75% attenuation in this case. Different strains of yeast vary as to how much sugar they convert to alcohol and there are other factors that can affect it all but never mind for now. So you can guestimate the final gravity from the original gravity. If the gravity is around this mark and steady for a couple of days, then bottle. If it is steady but not near there, then you have a stuck ferment. Various ways to try (and perhaps fail) to change that, but it's definitely not a good idea to bottle unless you've tried a few things and waited a good while. Have a search for stuck ferments if it happens again. Hope this helps.

BTW, what did you end up doing with the rest? Not down the drain!

Have no real idea about number 1, but I've used bottles many times with no problem so I'd be guessing if they look ok, go for it.