Bottling

[Jonnyv]

I started out bottling my beer and I was reasonably successful until I bottled a whole batch which was completely flat. After that I vowed never to bottle again and switched to cornie kegs :twisted:.

Now I'm looking to bottle again but I'm anxious about bottling & priming from the FV in case it doesn't carbonate due to yeast unviability. In the past I've tried innoculating each bottle with a few grains of dry yeast but that didn't help much. My counter-pressure filler works well but sometimes I need to bottle from the FV/secondary.

I'd like to drop to secondary, dry hop and then bottle but I'm in fear of the yeast dropping out in that time and there not being enough to carbonate. Adding dry yeast grains to beer seems to be hit or miss.

It's all probably related to the yeast I use, which tends to be S04 or Nottingham but I've had issues in the past with medium to low flocculant yeasts too. Perhaps it's a wort aeration problem... :hmm:

So - Is your bottling consistent? What's your technique?

 

[BrewStew]

whats your reason for wanting to secondary when you intend on bottling?

you can always dry hop in primary.

i've never had a flat beer, and never had inconsistent gas amongst bottles. and because of that i've never differed from my routine of 7 days in the primary fermenter, transfer to bottling bucket (just another fermenter with tap), add required amount of sugar to the volume, then bottle.

oh and i use S04

 

[Jonnyv]

I guess I could just dry hop in the primary.

It's a xmas beer I'll be bottling so I don't want to mess it up. I guess I'll just do what I normally do and hope it turns out ok. I usually bottle from a bottling bucket where I've mixed in the right sugar (or in this case honey) solution.

I probably overpitched the yeast (22g of Nottingham for OG 1.060) so hopefully it'll be fine :hmm:

 

[BrewStew]

should be alright if it's not left in primary too long :thumb:

 

[Jonnyv]

Let's hope so :pray:

I'll be bottling tomorrow night - it went in the FV on saturday. Maybe a little early to bottle but it dropped to 1.010 in 48 hours

 

[BrewStew]

christ i'd do it tomorrow night to be sure! cos that's fast!

you could always grab a table spoon of sediment and mix it into your bottling bucket for a bit more certainty