No prime bottling

[guypettigrew]

Hi Matt

Tell us more about your secondary FV technique.

When do you drop into the secondary, in terms of the SG compared to the OG?

How long do you leave the ale in the secondary before bottling, and how do you decide when to bottle from the secondary?

Do you use any finings in the secondary?

And, finally, how do you prime at the moment and is there any reason, apart from simplification, for changing this?

Sorry for all the questions!.

Guy

[Belter]

I'm pretty sure GW mentions it in BYOBRA

[Matt]

Hi Matt

Tell us more about your secondary FV technique.

When do you drop into the secondary, in terms of the SG compared to the OG?

How long do you leave the ale in the secondary before bottling, and how do you decide when to bottle from the secondary?

Do you use any finings in the secondary?

And, finally, how do you prime at the moment and is there any reason, apart from simplification, for changing this?

Sorry for all the questions!.

Guy

Guy,

I usually wait to hit target fg or thereabouts and then wait a few more days until transferring to secondary. I secondary in a cold garage. Usually very clear without finings by 10 days in secondary and a thin paint like layer in the bottom of the bin. Things look pretty stable by this point, even with a medium floccer.

I usually transfer to a bottling bucket but I'd like to omit this transfer because I think I could given above - either by not priming, or by gently stirring in my priming solution.

What's your take on that?

Cheers,

Matt

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure GW mentions it in BYOBRA

Cool, I'll investigate, cheers.

[guypettigrew]

Hi Matt

As your beer's clear after 10 days in the secondary there's not much yeast left in it. Enough, though, to carbonate it when you prime it. Which means there's enough!

It also probably means the yeast has chomped through a lot of the available sugars. When I used to drop into a secondary vessel I was never able to get good carbonation without priming.

Now, when I keg after seven to ten days in the primary FV, the beer produces enough gas to avoid me hitting it with an external source of CO2 for at least 8 weeks. I've never kept a beer longer than this!

Also, it's adequately gassed up after just a couple of days in the keg.

Three suggestions; bottle as you normally do, but without priming, and see what happens; bottle earlier and pour out very slowly to leave the yeast behind; buy some kegs!

To be honest, I've no idea why people use bottles. A keg takes no time to clean, no time to fill (I use a huge bore silicone syphon tube. It's like turning a tap on), takes up less space, needs no crown caps, clears within a couple of days with finings, allows you to have a pint or a small glass, etc, etc.

Where do you think you'll go from here?

Guy

[Matt]

Hi Guy,

For some reason I don't mind bottling, which is odd as everyone seems to hate it. I also prefer the mouthfeel and flavour of bottled beer. I have kegs but have never been impressed - that is likely to be the workman blaming the tools though.

I might no prime part of my next batch, say 10 bottles, as an experiment and hedging potential losses!

Thanks for your input mate, cheers

Matt

[Belter]

Hi Guy,

For some reason I don't mind bottling, which is odd as everyone seems to hate it. I also prefer the mouthfeel and flavour of bottled beer. I have kegs but have never been impressed - that is likely to be the workman blaming the tools though.

I might no prime part of my next batch, say 10 bottles, as an experiment and hedging potential losses!

Thanks for your input mate, cheers

Matt

I've never minded bottling either

I have tested this theory by kegging a 5L Minikeg with my first batch from my mini rig.

I'll be back in four weeks to report my findings.

[Matt]

Cool, good luck with that Lee

[lefkasman]

I bottle because I can't get the keg in the fridge and out here in Greece its slightly warmer than the UK.

[IPA]

Sounds as though you are actually kegging your beer before it has met it's FG ?

Possibly. I've never really understood FG. Always happy and willing to learn more.Guy

1/4 gravity is a rule of thumb figure different worts ferment out to different figures. Try using GW's free Beer Engine software that you can download here.
http://www.practicalbrewing.co.uk
It's dead easy to use and as I said it's free

[Belter]

I can now say I've tried this and the beer ended up with no carbonation whatsoever.