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Hopperty

Hopperty

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Just done a kit and bottled it today - forgot about taking a reading until after it was bottled, reading was 1016, now I read the instructions and it says it will not be ready for bottling until it reaches 1014
I think all fermenting activity stopped on day 6, so it has had 5 days of standing idle

So what will happen ?

(The hydrometer thing does read 1 in water)
(and the starting gravity was 1048)
 
Hi Hopperty, a very nice beer or loud bangs from the shed, I would say nothing just nice beer acheers.acheers.acheers.acheers., I bottled one on Wednesday it was only in the fermenter 7 days and its all good, I shouldn't worry to much
 
Personally, I would worry!

There is nothing quite like having to dig out a long sliver of glass from your arm, or see a sheet of blood running down your face as a result on an exploded bottle!

Glass really is an unforgiving medium and when it "goes" you really don't wish to be within 100 metres of it; so pleas think of what happened to the man who was asked "Do you feel lucky punk?" and ask yourself the same question!
 
According to the ABV calculator that gives you attenuation of 66%, which is on the slightly low end but not far off what some yeasts are supposed to achieve. For reference mine generally achieve anything from 70-80% with a few Belgian and saison yeasts going up to 88%

Your beer will probably be absolutely fine but going forward you should really leave it until atleast 14 days before bottling, there's a chance the yeast had finished converting what it could into alcohol but after just 6 days there is a chance it wasn't quite finished. Also worth remembering once it has finished it will then start to clean the beer up giving an improved taste and appearance
 
Dutto said:
Personally, I would worry!

There is nothing quite like having to dig out a long sliver of glass from your arm, or see a sheet of blood running down your face as a result on an exploded bottle!

Glass really is an unforgiving medium and when it "goes" you really don't wish to be within 100 metres of it; so pleas think of what happened to the man who was asked "Do you feel lucky punk?" and ask yourself the same question!
Click to expand...
they're all in the same cupboard, could be a chain reaction - LOL - should I call the bomb squad out and have the estate evacuated ?
 
Richard_H said:
According to the ABV calculator that gives you attenuation of 66%, which is on the slightly low end but not far off what some yeasts are supposed to achieve. For reference mine generally achieve anything from 70-80% with a few Belgian and saison yeasts going up to 88%

Your beer will probably be absolutely fine but going forward you should really leave it until atleast 14 days before bottling, there's a chance the yeast had finished converting what it could into alcohol but after just 6 days there is a chance it wasn't quite finished. Also worth remembering once it has finished it will then start to clean the beer up giving an improved taste and appearance
Click to expand...
Despite my earlier post, it was 13 days between adding yeast and bottling. temperature was between 22 & 19.5 for the whole time.

For future reference what should I have done; On noticing it was only down to 1016 should I have left it a few more days to make sure it was no longer falling before bottling ?
Is it good practice to make sure specific gravity has bottomed before bottling, and if so what time scale between readings to determine the bottom has been reached?
 
Hopperty said:
Despite my earlier post, it was 13 days between adding yeast and bottling. temperature was between 22 & 19.5 for the whole time.

For future reference what should I have done; On noticing it was only down to 1016 should I have left it a few more days to make sure it was no longer falling before bottling ?
Is it good practice to make sure specific gravity has bottomed before bottling, and if so what time scale between readings to determine the bottom has been reached?
Click to expand...
In general if it has not moved after three days when within target FG but if still above let it sit for a week though this is also dependent on temperature.
 
So would letting it sit for another week be a reasonable thing to do (3 weeks in the FV) ?

I'm very new to this so sorry if some of my questions seem daft - I'm here to learn.

I'm guessing the comments regarding exploding bottles is because there could still be some fermentaion to be done and this would increase the pressure ? (but then we add sugar before bottling to give a bit pressure, is this not through fermentation?

as it turns out, I only added ¼ teaspoon not the ½ as recommended. May be that will compensate for the little extra fermentation to be done ?
 
Hopperty said:
So would letting it sit for another week be a reasonable thing to do (3 weeks in the FV) ?

I'm very new to this so sorry if some of my questions seem daft - I'm here to learn.

I'm guessing the comments regarding exploding bottles is because there could still be some fermentaion to be done and this would increase the pressure ? (but then we add sugar before bottling to give a bit pressure, is this not through fermentation?

as it turns out, I only added ¼ teaspoon not the ½ as recommended. May be that will compensate for the little extra fermentation to be done ?
Click to expand...
You are quite right.Be sure fermentation has completed and maybe give it another bit of time so as to allow the yeast to clean up and as you say that little bit of priming sugar does exactly that and with any other residual sugars left over can lead to dire consequences.
 
Hopperty said:
So would letting it sit for another week be a reasonable thing to do (3 weeks in the FV) ?

I'm very new to this so sorry if some of my questions seem daft - I'm here to learn.

I'm guessing the comments regarding exploding bottles is because there could still be some fermentaion to be done and this would increase the pressure ? (but then we add sugar before bottling to give a bit pressure, is this not through fermentation?

as it turns out, I only added ¼ teaspoon not the ½ as recommended. May be that will compensate for the little extra fermentation to be done ?
Click to expand...

IMO 3 weeks is the sweet spot, although most mine sit in the FV for around 4-5 weeks because i tend to brew strong beer 3 weeks is perfect for most beers. 13 days is much better than 6 and at that temperature it was probably done but sometimes the yeast can be on the slow side

If you under primed your bottles that gives you some breathing space IF the yeast was not done but it will still eat the priming sugar and create C02 which means you might end up with gushers. If that is the case then store what you can in the fridge to lower the Co2 levels
 

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