Storage of Bottles Whilst Fermenting.Run out of Space

[jhay]

I just filled 29 bottles of my latest brew.Run out of space and Cook want give me any cupboard space.Is the any reason why I can't set the STC 1000 at say 27-28' and store them in the fridge whilst they are fermenting?.I'm wanting to store them for carbonationg whilst in the bottles

 

[sponge]

Why would you set your STC so high? Really should be around 18-20 for fermentation..

You should really be able to store the bottles in any cool, dark area though.

 

[bum]

Why would you set your STC so high? Really should be around 18-20 for fermentation..

Looks to me like he's talking about bottle carbing. No reason to think you should keep those temps for the bottles.

Your idea is fine, jhay.

[EDIT: I wouldn't necessarily deliberately heat them to that temp the whole time if that is what you plan to do though.]

 

[wbosher]

You want you bottles to carb up at around fermenting temperature anyway. So as sponge said 18-20 would be a good place for both bottles and fermenter...win win.

 

[carniebrew]

I think technically it's called 'bottle conditioning' once you've bottled the beer, but it's also referred to as 'secondary fermentation'. I agree with the others, 27 is too high, conditioning will happen at anything over 18 or so for an ale. Go with 20 in your brew fridge...and you can call it a 'conditioning fridge' while they're in there, sounds mighty posh.

 

[sponge]

I was reading the OP as saying he was putting the bottles into the fridge with a fermenting brew, as opposed to just putting them in an empty fermenting fridge and setting it at a given temp.

Always good to try and keep the brews stored a little cooler though, but as bum says, they should be fine either way.

 

[Glengine]

Over summer I tried to keep all my beers in the fermenting fridge so they weren't sitting in the garage getting too hot! It just meant I didn't have room to do any fermenting for a while, especially seeing I had lager in there and I wanted to put on an ale next. Waited until I had enough room to move the rest of the lager into the fridge inside and then got on a new batch.

In winter, I will put bottles in the fermenting fridge to bottle condition for 2-3 weeks to carb up (it's too cold here in Canberra to bottle condition ales in winter!), then move them to a cupboard in the garage.

As everyone else has mentioned, try to bottle condition at the same temperature as fermenting. This has got good results for me.