Delay bottling?

[mattrgee]

Hi all,

My Festival Old Suffolk Strong Ale has been fermenting for 10 days now and is currently at 1016 with occasional airlock activity. I suspect it's going to need at least another couple of days before it reaches the recommended 1014. The temperate of the bucket has been at a constant 18 degrees C.

I'm away Friday night until Sunday afternoon, should the beer finish fermenting will it come to any harm sat in the fermenting bucket for a couple of days before bottling on Sunday?

Thanks.

 

[Awfers]

No worries at all! You can let your beer sit on the yeast bed for a while before worrying about autolysis etc.

 

[winelight]

Mine is always on the yeast a minimum of 3 weeks (10 days at 18, 5 at 21, 5 at 12).

OK I know that only makes 20 days, but I'm always a day late somewhere or other...

 

[mattrgee]

Perfect!

Another question

Once it's finished, I intend to siphon it off into a second bucket, from here I will use my 'little bottler' to fill my bottles. Once in the second bucket, is it worth leaving it in there for a day or so to settle before bottling? If so, do I need to worry about oxygen getting to the beer, i.e. the air gap between the beer and the inside of the lid?

Thanks.

 

[Bowl sprayer]

Hi
Yes, always a good idea to transfer to a sterile 2nd container.
It will inevitably give your beer some exposure to oxygen but keep it to a minimum and it should be ok. When using a siphon don't let the beer splash around, siphon straight into the bottom of the vessel.
It allows more opportunity to settle and clear, for the yeast to do its clean up and you can cool it down as well after a few days to help drop the proteins out. If you don't cool it at this stage then you run this risk of chill haze later once kegged/bottled.
Once it is off the main sediment (I think it is called the "trub") I have left it for a week or so in the warm and then a week or so in the cold. My beer has always survived and if anything benefited from that 2nd stage.
All Brewferm kits recommend this step. I think it is known as racking. It also gives an ideal opportunity to dry hop your brew. The results I have had dry hopping are spectacular. I will always dry hop in the future.
Good luck!
Bowl sprayer

 

[Awfers]

Perfect!

Another question

Once it's finished, I intend to siphon it off into a second bucket, from here I will use my 'little bottler' to fill my bottles. Once in the second bucket, is it worth leaving it in there for a day or so to settle before bottling? If so, do I need to worry about oxygen getting to the beer, i.e. the air gap between the beer and the inside of the lid?

Thanks.

Bowl Sprayer is correct, racking it off to a secondary fermenter after fermentation stops is good practice, it helps prevent yeast autolysis as well as absorbing additional harsh tannins from any hops that transfered into the fermenter from the kettle. As he says, you should try and get it down in temp as low as possible (2°C to 4°C ideally) to let the proteins that cause chill haze to settle out. But don't sweat it if you can't :)

If you only want to let it sit for a day in the plastic bottling bucket prior to bottling, that isn't really long enough for a secondary fermentation, and I would worry about the risk of infection due to the valve/spigot at the bottom of the bottling bucket being exposed to the outside world when you go to bottle after a day or two. You could wrap the spigot it in a small plastic bag after initial disinfection and maybe use an alcohol based disinfectant on it prior to commencing bottling, that might solve the issue (it's what I use to sterilise the outside of glass beakers etc prior to pitching a yeast starter into the wort). I think mine comes from Ecolab. But again, it's not ideal.

Personally, I would not use the bottling bucket as the secondary fermenter. A glass carboy rather than a plastic bucket would be better as a secondary fermenter which is just a bit above your batch size (5 gallons?) as it's easy to have only a small amount of head space., I choose glass over plastic simply to reduce the risk of infection that is inherent with a plastic (scratches in the surface of the plastic where nasties can hide waiting to spoil your beer). YMMV. But again, don't sweat it if you don't have one.

You can also avoid oxygenating the new beer by flooding the secondary fermenter and bottling bucket with CO2 prior to transfering. If you're using a kegging system, it's pretty easy to do.

Cheers,
Awfers

 

[winelight]

racking it off to a secondary fermenter after fermentation stops is good practice, it helps prevent yeast autolysis

A few weeks ago someone posted a link to some scientific evidence which suggests that this doesn't happen for many weeks or months. So nothing to worry about.

For me the risks of oxidation / infection are not worth it.

 

[bbslaw]

Probably an unnecessary point, but if you rack it to the FV with the tap and then leave it for a day or two, you will then have to prime each bottle rather than batch priming. You wouldn't want to mix the priming sugar solution into the tapped FV as that would stir up the trub that's dropped out. So, can either rack to a secondary FV without a tap, leave for a while and then rack to the FV with the tap for immediate batch priming and bottling, or leave it in primary and then just rack for immediate bottling. Of course, you may be planning on priming each bottle anyway, but I'm finding I much prefer to batch prime - cleaner and easier.
The 'rack to secondary or not' debate seems to crop up on this forum a lot, with strong proponents of each side. I haven't made my final decision yet...

 

[Awfers]

racking it off to a secondary fermenter after fermentation stops is good practice, it helps prevent yeast autolysis

A few weeks ago someone posted a link to some scientific evidence which suggests that this doesn't happen for many weeks or months. So nothing to worry about.

For me the risks of oxidation / infection are not worth it.

Yes, I'm aware of the time requirements for autolysis, I still hold that it's good practice.

Oxidation can be managed by flooding with CO2 any recipient that will hold the beer post-fermentation (secondary fermenter, bottling vessel and even bottles if you like)

Infection can be managed by a thorough sanitisation/sterilisation scheme.

 

[mirsultankhan]

I put my beer outside for a couple of days. At the moment there is 22 litres of Boddington mild in the FV in the back garden. The cold night air clears it up beautifully after a few days. :-D

 

[HebridesRob]

Interesting to read that thread. Only two years ago and no-one seems to recommend racking now.

 

[Covrich]

I put my beer outside for a couple of days. At the moment there is 22 litres of Boddington mild in the FV in the back garden. The cold night air clears it up beautifully after a few days. :-D

For those of us without the ability to cold crash this is a good method.. I have stuck mine in the conservatory overnight in the winter where its a few degrees and it does help.

You don't need to rack for a dry hop.

If I was going to rack for bulk conditioning aging then I would do it in a large glass demijon (which I do not have)