Delaying Bottling

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 12:28 pm

G'day folks - Great forum you all have here although I think this is my first post. I usually find all my answers using the search function.

Anyhow I was wondering how long I can delay bottling. My brew is ready for bottling but it's not really a convenient time. Can I leave it in the fermenter for another day or two or do I have to somehow make time to do it today?

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 12:33 pm

So long as your temperatures are reasonably low (say, below 22Â°) and stable, then you could delay bottling in primary for up to a month without too much risk of off-flavours from autolysis or oxidation.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 12:35 pm

Thanks for the quick reply. A month - wow! 48 hours should do just fine. Thanks again.

geoffclifton · Post by **geoffclifton** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 12:53 pm

Maybe a warning.

I bottled yesterday, 17 days in the fermenter. I turned the heaters off on day 12 and it's been sitting in the fridge at 14* which should have been fine.

However I found 3 or 4 little flies in the water jar for the blow off hose and I horribly suspect there is a hint of vinegar taste to the beer. This topic was covered here recently so I hope I'm not being paranoid. We'll see in 3 weeks.

Would adding a bit of Sod Met to the blow off water help keep the hose sterile and keep insects away? Yeh I know it's the sulphur gas that does the work.

Cheers, Geoff.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 12:56 pm

I'd be really surprised to hear that any bacteria from the flies got all the way up the blowoff tube into your brew. I'd first suspect paranoia, then other infection vectors. Certainly, adding some sanitiser to the blowoff water wouldn't hurt.

chargermac · Post by **chargermac** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 2:42 pm

Hi Alan, enjoy the ride.
sorry to hijack your post
RWH when you say stable temp i have a 4 degree(at worst) change over night and throughout the day 18 to 22. is this stable enough?

brewing a stout and a draught

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 2:57 pm

That should be fine, though it's best to have as little variation in temperature as possible so that the yeast can adapt themselves, and don't produce so many off-flavours as they retool their proteome for different temperatures. One way to do this really easily is to just wrap your fermenter in a towel, blanket or sleeping bag.

chargermac · Post by **chargermac** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 3:43 pm

THNX RWH

I'll cut down an old sleeping bag, 1 for each fermentor

Emo · Post by **Emo** » Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 5:59 pm

I left my last brew in the fermenter for 4 weeks and a day.

When I bottled it, it tasted great out of the fermenter and should be ready to drink in a week or two.