Hi All,
I posted a few questions here before and have had some really great advice. I'm getting there - slowly :)
For the last 3 days, I have been taking gravity readings and they have remained constant for those 3 days. I took my final reading last night actually. When I realised that the fermentation was complete, I removed my heat belt from my plastic bucket. This morning when I woke, I noticed the temperature was sitting around 16 - 18 degrees. I'm using a simple thermometer strip attached to the bucket so I know it's not going to be 100% accurate.
Will my brew be ok to sit for another week at this temperature before I start to bottle or should I consider putting the heat belt back on? I'm slightly concerned that the temperature has dropped too much.
My understanding is that the process of leaving beer after fermentation is called conditioning? From what I understand, I'm able to condition in my primary. When I read anything online about how long I can leave my brew in a primary, they always talk about 2 - 3 weeks but I'm not sure if the fermentation time is included in this or if that time is in addition to fermentation?
Lastly, I'm fermenting in a bucket that has no airlock so I have been leaving a little bit of the lid of the seal. Just ever so slightly to let the gases escape. Recently, I have been leaving the lid on tight then every so often, i would "squeeze" the gases out. Will this continue to happen even when fermentation is complete? i.e will my lid still be expected to be bulging?
Thanks very much. Any help is, as always, much appreciated
I posted a few questions here before and have had some really great advice. I'm getting there - slowly :)
For the last 3 days, I have been taking gravity readings and they have remained constant for those 3 days. I took my final reading last night actually. When I realised that the fermentation was complete, I removed my heat belt from my plastic bucket. This morning when I woke, I noticed the temperature was sitting around 16 - 18 degrees. I'm using a simple thermometer strip attached to the bucket so I know it's not going to be 100% accurate.
Will my brew be ok to sit for another week at this temperature before I start to bottle or should I consider putting the heat belt back on? I'm slightly concerned that the temperature has dropped too much.
My understanding is that the process of leaving beer after fermentation is called conditioning? From what I understand, I'm able to condition in my primary. When I read anything online about how long I can leave my brew in a primary, they always talk about 2 - 3 weeks but I'm not sure if the fermentation time is included in this or if that time is in addition to fermentation?
Lastly, I'm fermenting in a bucket that has no airlock so I have been leaving a little bit of the lid of the seal. Just ever so slightly to let the gases escape. Recently, I have been leaving the lid on tight then every so often, i would "squeeze" the gases out. Will this continue to happen even when fermentation is complete? i.e will my lid still be expected to be bulging?
Thanks very much. Any help is, as always, much appreciated