Finishing through to bottling a brew

[Otters]

Hello,

The last few brews 'brewed over summer months' have taken ages to come into condition - smelling / tasting yeasty but after months this dissipates.

The method I use for finishing and bottling follows:

1) ferment out in primary FV (normally a week)
2) Rack to Barrel (Wilko 23L vessel) store for around 4 weeks until tasting and looking good
3) Prime the barrel (the night before bottling - with glucose syrup - brewers sugar)
4) Bottle the lot with bottling stick
5) store in the garage for 4 weeks
6) start to consume - but all bottles are stored in the garage in crates.

Is the method above flawed? that's my question really. I've reached a road block in my knowledge and wonder if I'm on the right track.

Any advice would be welcomed

Rgds

Otters

[jaroporter]

i generally leave beers at least 2 - 4 weeks in primary before bottling and don't bother with a secondary barrel. theory behind that is there is more yeast in the beer to clean up after fermentation and help condition the beer quicker than racking it and leaving most behind. if nothing else it's easier and wont harm the beer, but it might help speed things up..

only other thing is that if it was cold in the garage then bottle fermentation/conditioning could be slower perhaps, which may explain yeasty flavours, though i'd have thought that wouldn't be a problem over summer?

[orlando]

Hello,

The last few brews 'brewed over summer months' have taken ages to come into condition - smelling / tasting yeasty but after months this dissipates.

The method I use for finishing and bottling follows:

1) ferment out in primary FV (normally a week)
2) Rack to Barrel (Wilko 23L vessel) store for around 4 weeks until tasting and looking good
3) Prime the barrel (the night before bottling - with glucose syrup - brewers sugar)
4) Bottle the lot with bottling stick
5) store in the garage for 4 weeks
6) start to consume - but all bottles are stored in the garage in crates.

Is the method above flawed? that's my question really. I've reached a road block in my knowledge and wonder if I'm on the right track.

Any advice would be welcomed

Rgds

Otters

I agree with jaroporter regarding your step 1, leave the beer on the yeast for longer there is often still quite a lot of work to be done by the yeast which is easier for it in bulk. My other recommendation is to rack off from the yeast leaving as much behind as you can, into your bulk ageing barrel, or to your bottling bucket where you introduce your priming syrup. This will dramatically reduce the yeast carried over and therefore reduce the yeasty flavour/influence you speak of. I also concur that the first 2 weeks after doing this the beer should be stored at usual fermentation temps, then stored cold.

[Ben711200]

As you said it relates to beers brewed over the summer months, did you have a temp controlled fermentation, especially over those few weeks where it was especially hot? It could be that you got some yeasty off flavours that have gradually disipated over time due to high fermentation temps?

I also don't rack to a secondary, just leave in primary for 2 weeks and go straight to bottling.

[InsideEdge]

Hi Otters.

I use a very straightforward process.

2 weeks fermentation, bottle, 3 weeks conditioning. Drink. Job done!

I've used this to good effect over many lovely brews. You method seems to take 9 weeks. Would be too much for my patience! Bear in mind most commercial beer would only take 2-3 weeks going from grain to glass. Also 'hoppiness' fades over time.

I think you are taking far too long to get your beers into the bottle which is why they take a while to carb up/condition.

[Otters]

Hello Gents,

wanted pay you thanks for your advice

I'll leave the beer in the primary for 2 week's prior to racking into the barrel, I'll also rack out of the barrel into a bottling bucket to avoid rousing yeast deposits when launching priming sugars into it.

For the record, I regularly use a fermentation temp controlled fridge for the primary ferment. But, matured the beer (in the barrel) at room temp (garage) which, is probably OK for 9 months of the year - not the summer we've just had though. So this is something I need to work on.

Thanks for the advice and I'll let you know how I get on with the next brew!

Otters

[hophit]

I have been doing fermentation circa a week in primary, then move primary to fridge (much to my girlfriend's annoyance) to cool/condition/clarify for 2 weeks Then I have been mixing in bottling sugar (VERY CAREFULLY, trying not to disturn the trub) to the primary and bottling straight from there using one of those rod things with a kind of mini cup on the bottom in the primary, alongside a bottling wand.

Is this the right way?!

I want to use a bottling bucket, I am just paranoid about getting oxygen in it! I need to be braver as it sounds like the way to go...

[orlando]

I have been doing fermentation circa a week in primary, then move primary to fridge (much to my girlfriend's annoyance) to cool/condition/clarify for 2 weeks Then I have been mixing in bottling sugar (VERY CAREFULLY, trying not to disturn the trub) to the primary and bottling straight from there using one of those rod things with a kind of mini cup on the bottom in the primary, alongside a bottling wand.

Is this the right way?!

I want to use a bottling bucket, I am just paranoid about getting oxygen in it! I need to be braver as it sounds like the way to go...

You can get away with using time as your criteria but the hydrometer is the instrument of choice. Yeasts behave slightly differently and even the same one can change its characteristics if it receives a different wort and climate to work in. When you have had a minimum of 3 readings each separated by 24 hours only then can you think of racking off. If you wish to work with a default setting of time lapsed then 2 weeks will pretty much always get you in the ball park. As for what to do next, see above.

As for aeration of the beer during racking/transfer/bottling, unless you intend to keep the beer for a year or more you are unlikely to notice it. In fact the only time I have ever noticed it was in some of my first kegging attempts and only then after a couple of months. That doesn't mean you can be cavalier, even a little care will pay dividends.

[steambrew]

As I have only bottled some beer in the past with poor results ,I see we're I have been going wrong I will be bottling more now as I had poor results in the summer with kegs thanks for tips