Beer Forum

I just bottled my first 5 gal batch. Previous bottling of Mr Beer batches were recommends (on MrB site) to bottle condition and carb at the same temp the beer was fermenting at. Given ambient will be around the mid-upper 60s in the house, I was planning to just stash the bottles in a closet. My basement is in the low 50s. Is that too cool to condition my bottles? Also, the in-law apartment (vacant while they are in FL) is around 60°, what about in there? I ask because both the basement and the in-law apt have much more available space to utilize. THe in-law apt has a fridge that we keep turned off, so I could tuck them in there and not worry about any bottle bombs (not that I'm expecting that issue) as clean up in the fridge would be a lot easier than in my closet!

Stick the bottles in a case and tuck it away in your closet. You should be fine. Temperature wise, it is really more an issue of how long it will take. Cooler temps will still result in carbonation eventually, but it may take way longer. Room temps above 70 are going to carb it much faster, not sure if there will be any other effects at REAL high temps, but I'd avoid carbing at 80-90 anyway.

thanks. I just tucked them away in the closet. I'm more fearful of the screw-top growlers, as I understand they aren't designed for bottle carb'ing. I filled two of them, and the remainder in 12 oz bottles.

Yeah, the growlers 'should' work, but it will depend on what ones you have in particular. I don't feel like they are the best for packaging, because when you go to pour, you are going to be kicking up a lot of sediment over the 4 or so glasses that you are going to be tipping it for. Unless you pour it all at once.

spiderwrangler wrote:Yeah, the growlers 'should' work, but it will depend on what ones you have in particular. I don't feel like they are the best for packaging, because when you go to pour, you are going to be kicking up a lot of sediment over the 4 or so glasses that you are going to be tipping it for. Unless you pour it all at once.

Wasn't really thinking of that... doh! Well, I'll save them for when I have a few friends to pour for at once

I've contemplated a rig that would allow for the pouring from growlers under CO2, not so much for this but for commercial growlers, if you could keep them pressurized and under CO2 you wouldn't have to finish growlers all in one go, but haven't bothered doing anything about it...

Now carb'ing up goes quicker at 72 than 60. But what about conditioning?

I've got a case that has been sitting in the closet for maybe 6 weeks. It was a MrB extract thing, and I used additional DME and some honey (in place of the "booster"). It tasted super green at 4 weeks, and many who have made it have stated it's best to condition for months in the bottle. My closet it only so big... so if I feel they need more time in the bottle, can I move them to the basement which is in the mid 50s, or will that just slow the conditioning of the beer even more?

following up on this thread I started a while back.

I've got an extract/steeping Stone IPA clone in bottles. Been in the bottles for 3 and a half weeks. I tried one at 3 weeks (a day or two in the fridge first), and it definitely wasn't "ready". Not awful, but I could tell it was still green.

My previous beer, a modification on Tasty's APA, which was lower OG than the IPA (obviously) was ready pretty quick. I started chilling and drinking those after just a couple weeks. Same basic conditions for the bottle conditioning.

So is it safe to say, a 6.5% ABV IPA is going to need more time in the bottle to condition than a 4.5-5% ABV pale?

Just hoping my Stone clone attempt (which does NOT have the hop aroma I was hoping for) will show signs of improvement over the next couple of weeks.

My JZ APA (about a week and a half in the fermenter) came out a little bigger than I intended (boiled off more than I realized and didn't compensate in the fermenter AND has hit a lower gravity after the initial fermentation than expected). Should I expect the same thing... it's looking like a 6.3-6.5 ABV apa now. Will it need more time in the bottles to condition than it would have it I had made it at 5%?

The APA was my first AG brew and it fermented furiously the first couple of days. Much more airlock activity that my previous batches (extract).


Also, is there a rule of thumb for APA, IPA, american ambers when bottle conditioning: my basement in the summer is in the upper 60s which is great for carb'ing, but does the temp need to be lower than that for further conditioning?