Ready To Bottle?

[leamos]

I have been doing a lot of reading about when to bottle your homebrew and some of the answers from different sources say different things. My brew has had a sg reading of 1.010 for the past 2 days and no activity through the airlock. i was planning on bottling on monday, that is if nothing happens tomorrow on the SG front. But i was reading just now that you should leave it a week longer. What should i do

 

[Trev]

Typically, if there hasn't been any movement in the SG for a few days, then you can go ahead and bottle particularly if the SG has dropped to where you expected it to finish. The 1010 may or may not be high, depending on what you used, but sounds about right.

As long as you've kept everything clean, and not too warm, then an extra few days certainly ain't going to do any harm. A lot of us will rack the beer into a secondary fermenter for a week or two after most of the primary fermentation has subsidered, to allow the beer to condition and clear - even better if you can keep it a bit cooler.


Trev

 

[Duff]

Leamos,

Good advice from Trev, another couple of days won't hurt.

Is that a belt heater on your avator?? h34r:

 

[leamos]

Thanks for the advice guys, yes thats a belt heater, it keeps the brew around 23 -24 in a cool celler. though i do turn it off on warmer days to avoid over heating. My next brew, probably a malt shovel deep roast ale, will be brewed without the belt because i think this current brew finished very quickly and i want all the flavours to develop more, sound like thats the right thing to do?

 

[rodderz]

gday leamos

What sort of brew have you done? Is it part of the coopers kit?

 

[leamos]

yeh its the lager kit they give you in the kit, i surprised how drinkable it is straight out of the fermenter, thou it tastes more like a cooper's ale then a lager, i guess the ale yeast might have something to do with that. I think i will bottle half of the brew in the pet bottle that came in the kit and half in glass longies. I also have a 1.5L groulsh bottle i found in the back of a cupboard........what a find!

 

[rodderz]

I did the lager last week but i think those few hot days we had the yeast got a bit too warm and fermentation stopped. Doesnt taste too bad out of the fermenter, i will bottle 2 or so PET's but i think the rest of it is a lost cause...put down to a practise run lol. I'm gonna start the Aust Pale Ale tonight or tomrrow and MAKE SURE the temp is low and consistant this time! Found the pefect spot next to the thongs in the cupboard...nice and cool there!

 

[Chatty]

Leamos, I reckon 23 - 24 might be a touch high. Try to keep it around 18 degrees and you should produce a better beer. At 23 - 24 you may start to produce some off flavours

Chatty

 

[morry]

Id have to agree with chatty. I reckon around 19-20 or so is a nice temperature to keep the brew at. Any higher and you could get some funky flavours in there.

 

[rodderz]

So these 18-20C temps are for the standard yeast in the Coopers Kits guys? Even though they say 24 is a great temp on the video?

(although it is Paul Mercurio hosting it!!)

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Don't forget Coopers sell their MiniBreweries all over Australia, incl the tropical parts. that is why they say to ferment warm and bottle after four days--no other way to prevent autolysis in areas like Townsville or Broome (well, not without a fridge that most newbie kit brewers won't have.)

Melbourne just doesn't have those problems, or decent weather

Jovial Monk

 

[kook]

(although it is Paul Mercurio hosting it!!)

Paul Mecurio is actually an avid brewer himself, suprised me.

I cooked a recipe of his tonight actually (slightly modified):

http://www.paulmercurio.net/recipe/recipearchives/000095.php

I halved all the ingredients and used fish stock rather than chicken stock. Turned out good