Time to bottle or not???

FyFyTa

Hi, I have just brewed my second batch of wort. I used Muntons gold continental pilsner this time. After 7 days exactly the hydrometer reading was 1018. Then today I reached the magic number of 1014 after 8 days. According to Muntons instructions I should have 2 consecutive readings of 1014. Should I bottle now after 8 days or if I leave it another day is it too long and will the wort go off?? Any help is greatly appreciated , many thanks Conor

mayto

I would leave it for another few as it possibly might drop another few points, also a bit early to bottle. The instructions with kits are usually not great and tell you to bottle too quickly . There is no problem leaving it in the fermenter for 2 weeks. You really want to leave the beer until it is fairly clear. I usually leave beer in fermenter for 10 days then transfer to a second fermenter for another week, bottle then as it should be clear and finished fermenting. This is a step I would skip when starting off as its extra work which is possibly not needed. Best of luck with the brewing

Saruman

Yes try not to bottle too soon. Patience is the key to good brewing. I don't even bother taking hydrometer readings to check when it is bottling time. I just leave it in for a few weeks and then keg. Whatever my hydrometer says when transferring is good enough for me.

Of course this is fine as long as nothing goes wrong with fermentation but since I am a confident brewer it does not bother me.

NUIG_FiannaFail

It's unpatriotic to brew your own beer. My uncle says his pubs and hotels are struggling because of people brewing their own beer. Home brew is bad for businessmen and entrepreneurs.

tolosenc

Still waiting on my first kit to arrive, but a friend just finished his first batch, and put it in the bottle to clear, as per the instructions. Is it better to let it clear in the fermenter?

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

It's unpatriotic to brew your own beer. My uncle says his pubs and hotels are struggling because of people brewing their own beer. Home brew is bad for businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Lol

mayto

tolosenc wrote: »

Still waiting on my first kit to arrive, but a friend just finished his first batch, and put it in the bottle to clear, as per the instructions. Is it better to let it clear in the fermenter?

Kit instructions usually tell you to bottle within 1 week, which is usually too early. Check the gravity of your beer after a week, should be around 1012 for a regular kit. Check kit instructions for expeacted final gravity. I usually bottle after roughly 2 weeks and the beer is usually pretty clear at that stage and fermentation complete..

_blank_

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

It's unpatriotic to brew your own beer. My uncle says his pubs and hotels are struggling because of people brewing their own beer. Home brew is bad for businessmen and entrepreneurs.

troll again and it will be you last post in here

Saruman

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

It's unpatriotic to brew your own beer. My uncle says his pubs and hotels are struggling because of people brewing their own beer. Home brew is bad for businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Without wanting to feed the troll, I would say that in actual fact Homebrew actually breeds entrepreneurs. I know of at least 2 new breweries that opened in the last year in Ireland that started out homebrewing.

If it was not so difficult and costly to set up a micro brewery in Ireland there would actually be a lot more.

And being unpatriotic? With the exception of perhaps Bulmers/Magners there is not one beer available in the average Irish pub that is actually owned by an Irish company. Guinness, Murphys, Beamish etc are all foreign owned.