racking

[decdee]

have an EDME Stout that has now fermented to the required 1.008ish , what i would like to know is do i keep the heat belt and blanket wrapped around the second bucket once i have transferred it. im planning to bottle with the little bottler but i want to let it have as least sediment in the bottles as possible. also the brew is located in the garage hence the belt and the blanket. how long should it be in the second bucket before i bottle????

thanks in advance
d

[Waffty]

Dropping the temp helps the yeast to fall out of suspenstion, so aids clearing ....... but if you're planning to secondary ferment in the bottle/keg for your fizz, then you'll need some residual yeast, to react with your priming sugar. So a couple of days without heat shouldn't hurt, as there should be enough yeast left to secondary ferment.

Once the beer has been transfered into your secondary/bottles with your priming sugar, it should be held at room temperature (20 degrees C) for around a week or so, for the secondary fermentation process to take place.

As a tip, I always fill a small pop bottle with some beer & screw on the top, as it's an easy way to see if the process is working i.e just give the bottle a squeeze & as soon as it gets hard, you know it's fermented out. If is stays soft, then you many need to add some additional yeast/up the temp etc.