I’m also a new brewer who’s just bottled some Admiral’s Reserve. After reading conflicting advice I added the hops and yeast together, without stirring. No idea if that was the best idea but it smelt delicious yesterday when I bottled it. It was clear as a bell after 48 hours of cold crashing. I don't plan to taste it for at least another 4-6 weeks.
What day did you bottle it on just out of interest?
I cold crashed on day 14 and bottled on day 16. Being an incompetent newbie I made a mess of my hydrometer readings but I guessed that fermentation must have finished. I took the FV out of the fridge, siphoned to a bottling bucket which had 80g of dissolved brewing sugar in it, and then bottled with a Little Bottler. I filled 36 500ml bottles. It smelled sweet and beery and was very clear after the cold crash. I’m optimistic!
For the cold crash, did you set it up to draw Co2 back into the fermenter as the temp dropped? If not, it will have sucked air back in instead, and you dont want that,
Erm, no. I took the airlock out, replaced it with a tight rubber bung and put the FV into the fridge. Was that the wrong thing to do? How do you "draw Co2 back into the fermenter"?
When liquid cools it contracts and sucks air in wher it can (airlock etc) if the bung is tight the bucket will contract slightly with the lid being sucked down a bit. It’s not a worry at the min I would say not to panic.
Thanks for the explanation. This may explain why the lids were so hard to remove. Seems like they did a pretty good job of keeping the air out. On getting the lids off, I siphoned one immediately into a King Keg and the other into a bottling bucket and from there into 36 swing top bottles. So overall I hope they won't have had much exposure to the air. Time will tell.
