Bottle conditioning

[paulpj26]

Right I've primed my bottles with a teaspoon of sugar each, i've left them for 10 days in the warm and they have been in the cold for just over a week. I've opened a bottle tonight (just to see how it was going ) and it opened with barely a pop and poured out without a head. I realise I've probably not given it enough time but I was wondering if 10 days in the warm was long enough?

 

[Stone Cold]

it sounds like to me it should have worked well. how warm is warm?

 

[31bb3]

How long did you leave it in the fermenter after the fermentation had stopped also how much yeast on the bottom of the bottle also try another there may be a leaky bottle so all the gas would have escaped

 

[Dunfie]

How does it taste? Any faults?

 

[abeyptfc]

how'd it taste? was it flat or semi-carbonated? u beat me to it dunfie... great minds think alike n all that!

 

[paulpj26]

Warm is around 18C-20, there is some condition and I suspect it's just time but I'm just a little worried because of the lack of "pop" that came from the bottle when I opened it :hmm:

It was in the fermenter for 14 days altogether. There is quite a lot of yeast on the bottom of the bottle
:thumb:

It's tastes great Dunfie :thumb: I would just like to get my beer looking right :lol:

Before I put it into the cold I did QC test there was plenty of fizz that's why I'm a little surprised there's not much condition. There is however some conditioning around the edges of the glass (a bit like when you get a pint of hand pulled beer, if you swish it about you get loads of co2 bubbles around the edges just no head)

 

[Dunfie]

paulpj26[/i]]Before I put it into the cold I did QC test there was plenty of fizz that's why I'm a little surprised there's not much condition. There is however some conditioning around the edges of the glass (a bit like when you get a pint of hand pulled beer, if you swish it about you get loads of co2 bubbles around the edges just no head)

Have you had it in the fridge? Is it hazy?

Sorry, loads of questions.

 

[paulpj26]

Nope it's not hazy, I've had the bottles in the conservatory which temp has been ranging between 7-14 degrees.

 

[Dunfie]

In that case I think you just need to bring back into the warm for a bit and then taste periodically. Some yeast just take a bit longer to get the bottles to peak condition.

My last pilsner needed over three weeks to get to decent level of condition but most of my ales are fine after a fortnight.

 

[paulpj26]

Thanks Dunfie :thumb: :

 

[Sean_Mc]

After 10 days in the warm and then the cold, I look for a little smoke from the bottle when opening.

When I say cold I mean around 3-6c, anything under 0c you can lose carbonation. After several days you should have a brew that makes a head, but quickly dissipates.
After a couple of months the carbonation is absorbed into the liquid and produces a creamy head that laces on the side of the glass.

Also I only prime with 1/2 teaspoon, unless its a lager.

JMHO

 

[disgruntledgoat]

I too have a quick bottle conditioning question...

I have a belgian ale I took out of primary too soon. It's reading 1.028 with 64% attenuation after a month in secondary and i'd like toget ride of some of that sugar. So can I use it in bottle conditioning if I dose with yeast?

I usually use 7g of sugar per litre and half a teaspoon of reclaimed yeast slurry for a 20-25l batch, so assuming this is doable, how do I adjust for that?

 

[Dunfie]

Thats a tricky one.

You are relying on the yeast kicking in again and fermenting the residual sugars in the beer. If you have had the beer in secondary for a month and it is still sitting at 1028 then it sounds like the yeast has finished (unless it has been sitting in the cold and just gone dormant).

How long has it been sitting at 1028? What abv is it at the moment?

 

[disgruntledgoat]

Been 1.028 for 10 days or so in 2ndary. Abv is 6.1%

As I say, I usually dose with fresh yeast for bottle conditioning, just wondered if I could ferment out some of the sugar?

 

[Sean_Mc]

Wow a 1074 OG, my hats off to you :party:

 

[Dunfie]

It depends on the yeast you use?

So you must have started around 1075 - it does sound like it stopped a bit early? Did the yeast perform as it was supposed to - was 64% the expected attenuation? If it was then there is no reason why you cannot try fermenting out some more but I wouldn't want to risk doing that in the bottle when there is still so much sugar that could potentially ferment as you might create some bombs.

 

[disgruntledgoat]

Yeah, OG was 1.075, the next batch got a bit excited on the boil and came out at 1.083!

The reason it ended up in secondary at that gravity was because I racked it on boxing day (need I say more?) And didn't take a reading before I siphoned it all off. The last lot had got from 1.080 to 1.013 in 5 days! Different yeast, though. Silly me.

I may experiment with just adding some more yeast and not priming with extra sugar... at 6% its the runt of my Belgian litter anyway.

 

[Dunfie]

I would just be a bit careful.

When I prime I use around 80g of white sugar to 22 litres of beer from the primary. This adds around 1.5 gravity points and ferments out to a decent level of carbonation. If you introduce another yeast when there is such potential it might get a little bit fizzy.

Having said that, I am really interested to hear about how you get on with it.

 

[disgruntledgoat]

Re: redosing with yeast

Brew Like a Monk reckons all the Belgian brewers do this for bottling, as the primary yeast has already worked so hard in fermenting down from high gravity and then started to break down in the colder secondary phase. Essentially, your primary yeast is in too poor a condition to reliably carbonate your beer.

 

[Dunfie]

No worries if you are using the same yeast. I thought you were thinking of using a more attenuative yeast for the conditioning (for example, using something like US-05).

Cheers