Bottling Assistance Please

[wrapped in bacon]

I think I'm about there with my first beer
I've just taken my second hydrometer reading and it seems stable at 1006 points and the beer is crystal clear
Mash day was May 22nd (21 days ago). I used Safale US-05

I sampled the beer with today's hydrometer reading and I was so impressed I dragged one of the neighbours round to give it a try - he was also suitably impressed :clap:

OK, so I seem to have been reading different peoples notions of what comes next and I'm in a bit a of a quandary.
Do I leave the beer to mature in a barrel, in which case I'll have to buy one? (Graham Wheeler suggests it's very bad practice to bottle without maturing in a cask - others don't seem to mind as long as the beer is clear)
Is it all right to leave it sat on the yeast cake in the fv (I did transfer to a clean fv after the initial furious fermentation)
Or, since it's clear is it fine to transfer to bottles?
If I go for the bottles do I require priming sugar? There's lots of information on this site about quantities of sugar but do I need it? Despite stable FG readings there is some occasional movement on the fv airlock and I was quite surprised that the sample I drank today wasn't flat???

Home brew works! And I'm very pleased I went straight for AG :

Thanks in advance

 

[LeithR]

What you say in your post sounds about normal. I'd suggest - if you want to mature - move it into another FV with airlock off the yeast cake, you can keep it like this for some weeks or even a month or so.

The second option and my own preferred approach is once the SG is steady for 3 days transfer it to a bottling bucket (effectively an FV with a tap fitted near the bottom, just above touching the floor) after you have added - if its a british type ale - 5g/litre (115g for 23L of beer or a little more if its a lager type) sugar dissolved in some boiled water then allowed to cool, you want to have the sugar in there before the brew so it will mix when you add the beer, this is the priming sugar which gives the beer a bit of fizz, but not too much (fizz that is).

Use a syphon tube which is long enough to touch the bottom of the bottling bucket (this will stop aerating the brew, it just swirls around in the bucket. Once transferred, use a short piece of tube or a "Little Bottler" if you have one attached to the tap in the bucket to fill each bottle. This approach allows for different sizes of bottle, the priming sugar is shared in proportion.

Always use a PET bottle or two if bottling. Once bottled keep the bottled beer warm for a couple of weeks then move it into the cool of a garage or shed for at least another 2/3 weeks. The PET bottles allow you to get a feel (by squeezing) for how the conditioning is going, if the bottles are getting harder to squeeze then the gas (Co2) is being made. Once the bottles are conditioned move them into the cool, this forces the Co2 back into the beer which gives it the required fizz.

If you have kept your beer in a cube while conditioning you can pick up the process at the bottling bucket stage when you want to move on with it.

Sit back and enjoy!! :

 

[wrapped in bacon]

You were right and I did :