Can anyone give a definitive run-through of bottle conditioning?

hatrickpatrick

Hey, just finished bottling my first brew (due to several silly mistakes, what was meant to be an all-afternoon thing yesterday turned into an all-afternoon, break, then all-night thing - finally finishing it now ) and had some questions. I've read a bunch of different guides online and several of them give directly conflicting instructions, so I figured it'd be best to ask the folks here instead!

First of all, the beer is an IPA of unknown gravity (have a proper hydrometer now so this won't happen in future batches!), kit is suggested to be in the 4.5 - 5.5% range, and I'm using Coopers Carbonation Drops for the priming. I'll move on to the more traditional sugar mixing method on future batches.

Essentially, I'm wondering about storage and temperature. Some guides online suggest that bottles should be moved to somewhere cold once capped, while others suggest that they should be kept somewhere room temperature or even warm room temperature. Which is it? Or is it a case of starting them off warm and then moving them somewhere cold after a period of time, or vice versa?

I have several options here. My own bedroom has underfloor heating and tends to hover around 19-21 degrees. Rest of the house fluctuates a bit but would probably be somewhat cooler than this, especially at night, and finally I have an outdoor "cellar" room under my back steps which is pretty much entirely shielded from sunlight so is quite cool during the day and far more so at night. There's also a fan outlet there for the bathroom's underfloor heating, which keeps the place very brisk and breezy.

Basically, I now have all the bottles lined up on my kitchen table having just finished capping, and I'm wondering what should I do now, and which of the various instructions I've come across online is actually the right one! Any advice?

Richie71

You will want to store them at Fermenting temperature first so up to the bedroom for a couple of weeks. This will keep the yeast active and carbonate the beer. Then a week in the cellar should do it. Two if you can wait that long.

hatrickpatrick

Richie71 wrote: »

You will want to store them at Fermenting temperature first so up to the bedroom for a couple of weeks. This will keep the yeast active and carbonate the beer. Then a week in the cellar should do it. Two if you can wait that long.

So ideally, two weeks indoors and then two weeks outdoors? For some reason I had it my head that proper conditioning takes at least six weeks, but four weeks sounds good to me

Evil Phil

Richie71 wrote: »

... if you can wait that long.

Home brewers dilemma.

I usually do two weeks in the spare room and then *cough* 2 *cough* in the garage. Once it's clear it's generally drinkable but wait another week or so and it gets more drinkable.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

So ideally, two weeks indoors and then two weeks outdoors? For some reason I had it my head that proper conditioning takes at least six weeks, but four weeks sounds good to me

Be careful storing outdoors in spring, temperatures can fluctuate!

hatrickpatrick

Emberly Tight Sandbox wrote: »

Be careful storing outdoors in spring, temperatures can fluctuate!

I have a cellar of sorts, basically a void under the back steps which we had to cut a hole into for damp / ventilation purposes. It's very dark and because it faces a neighbour's wall where they've built an outdoor study, it's almost never in direct sunlight. I reckon it'll be grand, particularly with forecasts of snow for next weekend

Thanks for all the help folks! I ran into some disasters on bottling day (my wing cap stapler yoke doesn't fit certain shapes of bottles, so about half the bottles I'd collected were useless and I had to scour the gaff for suitable empties and have a few cheeky beers from the fridge myself to speed up the process ) but eventually got it all done, so Holy Thursday will be two weeks exactly. Will move them into the cold that day and *maybe* pop open a cheeky one the day after just to observe the sacred tradition of Good Friday beers properly After that, I'll wait until Thursday April 12 before drinking any.

Thanks for all the advice!

vigos

Came on here with a similar question as I just brewed by first kit ( Youngs American pale ale kit) and it's now bottled over 3 weeks ( 2 weeks indoors and now 1 week in the shed) . I tried a beer when it was just 2 weeks in a bottle, smells good when opened but has a very strong aftertaste in the mouth which I find hard to describe, it's a strong bitter taste if that makes any sense. It's been in the shed now for a week should it mellow out after a few more weeks? I'll probably try another bottle to see how it's progressing anyway.

monty_python

vigos wrote: »

Came on here with a similar question as I just brewed by first kit ( Youngs American pale ale kit) and it's now bottled over 3 weeks ( 2 weeks indoors and now 1 week in the shed) . I tried a beer when it was just 2 weeks in a bottle, smells good when opened but has a very strong aftertaste in the mouth which I find hard to describe, it's a strong bitter taste if that makes any sense. It's been in the shed now for a week should it mellow out after a few more weeks? I'll probably try another bottle to see how it's progressing anyway.

I'm far from an expert but maybe the after taste is hops?
I have found the hops mellow out alot with age. Try it again in another week and again 2 weeks after than and judge for yourself

vigos

It probably is the hops alright and I'm just not that used to it. It certainly has a good smell of hops of it alright but the aftertaste is definitely a lot stronger and wasn't sure if it was the hops or not. Probably best to keep trying it week by week for research purposes of course

hatrickpatrick

Ended up leaving it at room temperature for a full three weeks. Tried it after two, but it just wasn't nearly fizzy enough for my liking - was worried that I'd screwed up with the amount of carb drops in each bottle or the temperature, but tried another one last night and it was perfect. Good to go.

Final question on this (hopefully!) - the beer last night was grand, but it had quite a strong smell of yeast and very little silt in the bottom of the bottle. I reckon this means that the yeast hasn't dropped out of suspension yet (the strong yeasty smell was in the glass after pouring, not the bottle, so it's not just the silt at the bottom causing it). Since this was straight from room temperature, to the fridge for the day before drinking, I reckon it just means it wasn't cold enough for long enough - is this the case, and if so should I now move all of it to the cold storage area - or does this actually mean that the yeast hasn't finished working so in fact it still needs more time in the warmth, for the yeast to fall out of suspension on its own?

Thanks for everyone's help on this, it's been great craic and I'll be starting another brew once I've finished enough of this one to have a decent collection of empty bottles again

Richie71

Put all the beer in your cellar to cool for a week or two. This will help settle the yeast at the bottom and clear the beer.

You havent started the next one yet? 😲Get yourself some more bottles and start the next one or you're going to leave yourself without some beer for a few weeks.

hatrickpatrick

I'm now drinking away, beer turned out great for a first attempt! Somehow ended up much darker than expected (kit was sold as IPA, but this is amber or red ale easily, sort of reddish copper colour) but tastes great and properly carbonated. Advice re times and temperatures was spot on.

Want to thank everyone here for all the help and guidance over several threads with the first brew, this is definitely going to become a regular hobby :cool:

Interesting observation: Many people say not to use screw cap bottles since they won't hold the pressure for bottle conditioning, but I ran out of suitable bottles on bottling day (my capper can apparently only clamp onto bottles with a double rim at the top, a la Heineken bottles, but not the ones with the sort of mushroom shaped rims, a la most craft beers) and had to make up the difference with some Perlenbacher bottles and their used screw caps which I had thankfully been too lazy to throw out - tried one of those and one of the ones I crown capped with the capper on the same night a few days ago, and there's no difference at all, both perfectly fizzy and rich tasting. Something to note if anyone else is wondering - just make sure you screw the caps on tight. I used a vicegrips to make sure I turned them absolutely as far as they'd go into the bottle neck before moving on to the next bottle, literally no discernible difference between those screw cap ones and the ones which were properly capped.

Now, on to the next brew

EDIT: One other thing to note, this kit was advertised as 4.5% - 5.5%. Because of the mix up with the hydrometer I was supplied, I couldn't take an OG reading - but the beer I've made is much stronger than that. Shared a 500ml bottle with someone a few days ago and literally after half that each we were already tipsy, bottle #2 and we were bollocksed. Any thoughts as to how this might have happened? Not complaining but I'd like to know where I went 'wrong' in relation to that.

loyatemu

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

One other thing to note, this kit was advertised as 4.5% - 5.5%. Because of the mix up with the hydrometer I was supplied, I couldn't take an OG reading - but the beer I've made is much stronger than that. Shared a 500ml bottle with someone a few days ago and literally after half that each we were already tipsy, bottle #2 and we were bollocksed. Any thoughts as to how this might have happened? Not complaining but I'd like to know where I went 'wrong' in relation to that.

without know the OG and FG it's only guess work. Did the kit require adding of sugar or DME - perhaps you added too much. Or you added a smaller volume of water. Or it's not actually stronger and you're imagining it :pac:

hatrickpatrick

loyatemu wrote: »

without know the OG and FG it's only guess work. Did the kit require adding of sugar or DME - perhaps you added too much. Or you added a smaller volume of water. Or it's not actually stronger and you're imagining it :pac:

It came with 1kg of sugar, which I assumed I was to use in full. And I can tell you that I'm definitely not imagining it, several seasoned drinkers have now sampled it and all reported the same somewhat alarmingly rapid onset of drunkenness

Evil Phil

vigos wrote: »

Came on here with a similar question as I just brewed by first kit ( Youngs American pale ale kit) and it's now bottled over 3 weeks ( 2 weeks indoors and now 1 week in the shed) . I tried a beer when it was just 2 weeks in a bottle, smells good when opened but has a very strong aftertaste in the mouth which I find hard to describe, it's a strong bitter taste if that makes any sense. It's been in the shed now for a week should it mellow out after a few more weeks? I'll probably try another bottle to see how it's progressing anyway.

Is it yeasty or pine resiny (Does it taste a bit like toilet cleaner? )?

vigos

Evil Phil wrote: »

Is it yeasty or pine resiny (Does it taste a bit like toilet cleaner? )?

Hard for me to put a taste on it, but pine resiny could be on to something there with that description. I've tried another bottle or two since and it doesn't seem to be as strong an after taste so might get better the longer I leave it.

Evil Phil

Pine resin would suggest its the hops to me.