First timer needing help again!

[Butty69]

Hi all,

Second post about my first brew which I have had a few problems with.

After fermentation moved my brew to a primed cask roughly 3 weeks ago. After a few days there was excess c02 so I assumed this was due to the priming and released a little of the gas. This then settled so assumed c02 production had stopped/slowed.

Had hoped to bottle after 2 weeks but after tasting it didnt taste ready so I gave it another week but the taste didn't change so I treated it with some youngs beer finings to try and speed things up a bit. Tasted it today and although it does not taste ready it has improved greatly but it has started producing a lot more c02.

Is this normal and how much longer do you think I should leave it before bottling?

May sound like I am in a rush but only because I have another batch fermenting which has gone far better than the first but I only have one cask and my new batch should stop fermenting in the next few days and I don't really know how long I can keep it in the fermentation container before casking.

Thanks butty

 

[Chlorate]

I'm not sure it's usual to add priming sugar to a secondary fermentation before bottling...
As far as I'm aware the sequence is usually either:
-Primary, secondary, primed bottles.
-Or Primary, secondary, keg and force carbonate.

I personally don't bother with a secondary and go straight to bottling, there are a number of different opinions but I've heard it doesn't make a huge amount of difference either way.

I'd bottle your first brew and see how it goes. Beers always get better with a bit of time. If you're patient enough to keep some for a month I'm sure it'll turn out ok in the end.

 

[joe1002]

Normally if you are batch priming you would bottle straight away, not 3 weeks later. You need to be really really careful not to introduce oxygen and I think you will find it will froth up a lot if you try to bottle now. I would leave it in your keg & bottle the next lot.

Incidentally it's probably easier to bottle from a fv rather than a keg.

 

[carl_saint]

As Joey said, leave your first in the keg, bottle the second.

 

[Butty69]

Thanks for the advice having re-read my book it talks about maturing in a cask before bottling but then mentions priming in a separate chapter, think I put 2 & 2 together and came up with 20!

Will leave the first batch in the cask for a few more weeks and either buy another cask for the second or go straight to bottle.

Still not sure why it seems to be producing c02 again but will just leave it and see what I end up with.

 

[Swazi]

Still not sure why it seems to be producing c02 again but will just leave it and see what I end up with.

The priming sugar in the cask is producing the CO2, if you had bottled straight after adding the primings, the CO2 would have been trapped in your bottles, giving your beer condition.

 

[pittsy]

you also need to store it somewhere cold this will stop the production of co2 as it will become too cold for the yeast to turn the sugars in your cask to co2 and will also help in conditioning your beer for taste , it may take a good few months before your beer becomes nice