finished beer

[sam51]

hi all i have a brew in the primary fermenter, its been in about 10 days, so i think its finished,
this one was done in a fridge at 20 degrees, so can i just chill this down now to 4 degrees
to clear it up, and then transfer to a corny keg, and force carb it,
many thanks.

[Kev888]

You can if you wish, yes - or even to about 0.5c if possible.

If the fermenter seals well enough for an airlock to work there is no great hurry though. A little more time to 'make sure' the fermentation is over and allow the yeast to clear up after the fermentation may be preferable, before chilling.

It will bulk mature in the keg or fv and keg, whichever route you take. But residual activity (too slow to easily see by the gravity) can sometimes cause the beer to over carbonate if one is too hasty to seal it up.

(It is best to use a spunding valve, if kegging happens quickly. The kegs can instead be manually 'burped' from time to time, but cornies have a problem in that they need 'some' pressure to seal properly, so you would ideally need to give a new blast of pressure after each burp).

[sam51]

thanks, could you explain a bit more, i normally transfer to the Cornelius keg,
take the temp down to around 4 degrees and force carb, then set the temp back up to around 12 degrees,
so i thought i take it down to 4 in the FB then transfer. to keg and force carb,

[Kev888]

Yes certainly: After FG the yeast are still working to clear up by-products of fermentation. In some cases they may also very slowly work away at the more difficult sugars and do a tiny bit more fermenting.

If you chill them immediately after FG then this slows or halts the process until they warm up to working temperatures again; they will still do so but it delays the process and then takes longer (as many more have settled out and been left behind in the FV). It also means any slight extra/residual CO2 creation will be in the sealed keg, where it could cause excess carbonation.

There may be reasons why you would wish to do this anyway, such as having an open (or loosely sealing) fermenter and wanting to get the beer protected as soon as possible after the fermentation (it will work). But if you have a reasonably sealing fermenter, and/or use a secondary fermenter, then giving the beer some time 'before' it is chilled can be better and ultimately faster (i.e. clearing isn't the only thing that should happen after fermentation).

There generally isn't much need to rush if the fermenter is good enough to exclude oxygen and infection. If the yeast were in fair health and aren't allowed to become too warm then you shouldn't start to get off flavours or autolysis problems within a few weeks of brew-day.

[sam51]

thanks very much. all the best sam.