moving fermenter for bottling

[william_shakes_beer]

hi, Been lurking for a while. getting ready to do my first brew this weekend, and looking forward to bottling 3 weeks hense.

Question 1: when I am ready to rack from the fermeter to the bottling bucket I plan to use the Revvy method of bottling over the open dishwasher door. This means moving the fermenter up from downstairs. Should I move it the day before to give the stirred up yeast a chance to settle of am I obsessing?

Question 2: I've determined my best method of doing temp control for the fermenter. Any ideas on temp control for bottle conditioning? Based on my house ambient temp I will need to add heat. What's the most reliable method of maintaining temp without the risk of bottle bombs?

 

[wittmania]

Assuming you're doing a longer primary (you said 3 weeks, which is on the short side IMO) rather than a secondary, you will want to move it a day ahead of time to give the sediment a chance to settle back down. You should also be careful as you move it to limit the sloshing around in your primary as much as possible.

Another thought would be racking off from your primary to a bottling bucket a day ahead of time. That would leave all of the sediment behind before moving it, plus would give it a day to clear.

As for the bottle bombs, temperature won't cause a bottle to explode. That only happens if there's still too much sugar in the young beer when you bottle it. If you're confident that fermentation is done (and you should be if you give it 3 weeks for anything but a high gravity brew), the only thing temperature will influence is how long it takes to condition, not the final volume of CO2 in the bottles. Higher temps may give you off flavors. Lower temps might make it take longer. I generally try to stay in the bottom third of the temperature range for the yeast I've used when I bottle condition.

 

[worstbrewing]

1) I typically place my fermenter high enough that I can rack from it in place, then I don't have to move it, just rack to the bottle bucket and move my bucket upstairs to do the rest.

2) When bottle conditioning, I typically just leave them upstairs somewhere, like a closet or similar. Since my upstairs typically stays pretty consistent temperature-wise, it's pretty easy to maintain usually.

 

[Yooper]

Just move it the night before if you remember. Otherwise that morning is fine. I move my fermenter first, then start gathering everything else. By the time I'm ready to rack, it's settled back down just fine.

You shouldn't need to add much heat to bottle condition- my house is COLD but I just keep the bottles in whatever room we're heating. We have a little home office with our computers and kegerator, so that is the warmest place in my house in the winter. I'd say it's nearly 64 degrees in there. The beer still carbs up, but very slowly. Ideally, it'd be in a warmer place like maybe ontop of the fridge but I just don't have the room.

 

[Revvy]

I move it and within the time that I'm getting everything else setup, my bottles sanitized, my priming sugar boiled and everything else ready the beer pretty much settles back down. As long as you're not doing a dance with your bucket, or going up or down stairs you're not going kick everything up. You can almost think about it as just shaking up enough extra yeast to make sure you have enough to do the job. I've never needed or noticed the need to let it settle back longer.

Lately even at my GF's where I HAVE been bringing the beer up the flight of stairs from the basement to the kitchen to bottle I haven't felt the need for any extra settling time.

But one thing that is in my favor is long primarying.

This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. (And it was brought up here stairs and set on the counter maybe 20-30 minutes before I racked it.) Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.

That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub.

So even with bringing up the stairs I'm not seeing much sediment making it's way across or into my bottling wand. It takes some water pressure to actually rinse the cake away when I'm cleaning, so I think it takes a lot to actually get it back into the beer. More even than just bringing it up the stairs.

As to temp control, I've just ever found the warmest place in my place and let it take as long as it needs. Maybe wrapping it with an insulated blanket. It may take longer than the 3 weeks at 70 degrees in the winter when I keep my place in the low 60's during the day (and entire weeks when I'm staying at my GF's.)

I have two closets in my loft, the one in my bedroom is warmer than the one in the rest of the loft (for one thing my water heater is there) and I keep the room warmer that the rest of the loft. So those tend to be a bit faster.

At my GF's I store my bottle cases next to her furnace. Which appears to be about 65-68 degrees or so.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Revvy:

Your bottling bucket looks like the brewer's best that I bought. I noticed you have an ELL shaped tube from the inlet of the valve turning down. Is that vinyl or glass? how far from the bottom of the bucket is it?

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

op

1) moving it to a convienent location would be just fine. careful with the sploshing/splashing.

2) conditioning is optimal at 70 but can be done at a lower ambient temp. i condition in the basement of my house with the ambient temp of 64. i simply have the heat vent pointing at the beer and it is covered in a blanket or towel. can have little flucuation and a slightly higher temp than ambient.

p.s. the Revvy is showing his dip tube again. never ask a man about his dip tube

 

[Revvy]

p.s. the Revvy is showing his dip tube again. never ask a man about his dip tube

*waterspew* I think you just cost me a keybooard.

Yeah we talk about and show various versions of my dip tube here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Even some bigger ones.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

oooh I'm so ashamed. {skulks off quietly to the shadows to lurk some more}

 

[NorthRiverS]

I moved my bucket downstairs to the dishwasher area. Makes bottling much easier. However, the last time I did that I blew my back out for 3 weeks! OMG ! Not gonna do that again.....

NRS

 

[chapa]

I've heard that temps of too high CAN cause bottle bombs. I've never experienced any, but I remember the guys on basic brewing mentioning that it had happened to them. Don't know how valid that is, but luckily in your case, you shouldn't have that issue, since you are needing to ADD heat at this point. The warmer it is, the faster it will carb though.

Make sure to CLEAN(as well as sanitize) that bucket really good, I think I've been picking up contaminates from my bottling bucket, from running a potential infected batch through, and not cleaning it as thoroughly as I should have, in addition to sanitizing(I would always sanitize good, but skimped out on the cleaning because I always had limited PBW---the solution: Oxiclean!!!).

Good luck with your first brew! Be sure to line up another one shortly after, and get that pipeline going!

 

[Revvy]

I've heard that temps of too high CAN cause bottle bombs.

Ive had one in a cupboard above my fridge blow. It was more than likely because it was hot up there.

 

[wittmania]

I know it's damn near sacrilege to disagree with Revvy around here (and for good reason), but the physics of hot bottle bombs just don't make sense. Liquids don't expand or contract a whole lot even with a temperature swing of 50* or more. Gasses are more sensitive to heat, but they make up a small amount of the total volume of the bottle (10%, maybe?). Even if you assume a very large temperature swing, you're talking about such a small amount of gas there's no way it could be enough to pop a bottle cap, let alone break a glass bottle.

If given enough sugar, the yeast in the bottle will keep producing CO2 until the bottle bursts. The only way that heat comes into the equation would be if the yeast had become inactive due to cold temperatures, halting bubbles in the airlock and even giving a steady hydro reading for a few days. Then, after bottling a guy puts his bottles in a warm place. The yeast wakes up, finishes off the sugar in the wort PLUS the new priming sugar. Boom. Bottle bombs.

The only way to really know that you're going to hit the 10-12 PSI that you want in your beer is to make sure that you're fermentation is REALLY done, and then add the right amount of priming sugar.

 

[Revvy]

I know it's damn near sacrilege to disagree with Revvy around here (and for good reason), but the physics of hot bottle bombs just don't make sense. Liquids don't expand or contract a whole lot even with a temperature swing of 50* or more. Gasses are more sensitive to heat, but they make up a small amount of the total volume of the bottle (10%, maybe?). Even if you assume a very large temperature swing, you're talking about such a small amount of gas there's no way it could be enough to pop a bottle cap, let alone break a glass bottle.

Even if it can get above 100 degrees in that space? I was out of town over a long weekend, we had a heat snap, my thrmostat in the apartment was reading 88 when I got in there, and that was late afternoon early evening. And the thermometer I had above the fridge in that cupboard showed 100 degrees . Also everything was bone dry though stickey...like it had pretty much already nearly dried/evaporated.

I always just assumed it caused it to blow.

 

[KookyBrewsky]

Resurrecting a dead thread but I’m about to do this. I’ve never seen anywhere besides here to leave the beer in primary for 5 weeks (I don’t do secondary). I’m going on week 3 and I was going to bottle it today.

What’s the suggested length for a single primary fermentation to remove off flavors? Too short is bad, too long is bad, at least I’ve read, regarding off flavors and the yeast cake.


The 3 week old brew I’m about to bottle is a chocolate stout, if I must leave it for 5 weeks I will! I’d rather not rush anything. But if 2 extra weeks doesn’t do much, I’d also rather not bother

 

[Jag75]

Resurrecting a dead thread but I’m about to do this. I’ve never seen anywhere besides here to leave the beer in primary for 5 weeks (I don’t do secondary). I’m going on week 3 and I was going to bottle it today.

What’s the suggested length for a single primary fermentation to remove off flavors? Too short is bad, too long is bad, at least I’ve read, regarding off flavors and the yeast cake.


The 3 week old brew I’m about to bottle is a chocolate stout, if I must leave it for 5 weeks I will! I’d rather not rush anything. But if 2 extra weeks doesn’t do much, I’d also rather not bother

If your hydrometer shows the fermentation is complete bottle it up. I normally leave my beer in the FV for 3 weeks . I've let it sit for almost 4 with no issues . I like 3 weeks because it has time to clean up and condition itself . I dont use gelatin , I just keg or bottle and have pretty clear beers unless I brew a hazy.

 

[KookyBrewsky]

If your hydrometer shows the fermentation is complete bottle it up. I normally leave my beer in the FV for 3 weeks . I've let it sit for almost 4 with no issues . I like 3 weeks because it has time to clean up and condition itself . I dont use gelatin , I just keg or bottle and have pretty clear beers unless I brew a hazy.

Alright thanks for the info, it seems like anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks is acceptable. I think I might leave it just a few more days as I create a cold crash chamber made out of a large (almost) 40 gallon tub. Just going to cut 1 foot diameter cut outs in the top of the lid, two of them for two fermenters at a time (the buckets are slightly taller than the tub), so I can both temperature control better during fermentation as well as cold crash when I’m about to bottle, since getting a chest freezer is not feasible right now.