Mofo
Grandmaster Brewer
I’ll be bottling an Imperial Amber. It’s a 74-point beer that’s fermented down to 13 points for an ABV of about 8%. I started fermentation at 18C, nudged it up to 20C after fermenting half way, then up to 21C. It’s sat at a steady 21C ever since. It was fermented with US-05.
My first question is how long to leave it on the trub. It was brewed Tuesday, May 26 and dry hopped a week later. I opted to dry hop in the primary fermentor rather than rack to secondary. I’ll remove the hops on Tuesday 16.
With a bigger beer like this is it better to leave it on the yeast cake or bottle it? I’ve left other beers on the yeast cake for up to six weeks and they came out fine. But is bottle conditioning the better option?
My second question concerns bottling and storage. I know that I need to take into consideration the highest temperature the wort reached during fermentation when calculating CO2 volumes (21C). But I can’t store the bottles in the same space the beer has been fermenting. My plan was to bottle there, then move the bottles to a room that currently gets as warm as 30C during the day.
Will I get bottle bombs if they carbonate at this higher temperature? Can I store the bottles in their current location for the two weeks they’ll need to carbonate, then move them? Should I first move the fermentor to the warmer location and let the finished beer reach the higher temperature before bottling? Or would it be best to find a way to store the bottles at the lower temp?
Many thanks for the help!
My first question is how long to leave it on the trub. It was brewed Tuesday, May 26 and dry hopped a week later. I opted to dry hop in the primary fermentor rather than rack to secondary. I’ll remove the hops on Tuesday 16.
With a bigger beer like this is it better to leave it on the yeast cake or bottle it? I’ve left other beers on the yeast cake for up to six weeks and they came out fine. But is bottle conditioning the better option?
My second question concerns bottling and storage. I know that I need to take into consideration the highest temperature the wort reached during fermentation when calculating CO2 volumes (21C). But I can’t store the bottles in the same space the beer has been fermenting. My plan was to bottle there, then move the bottles to a room that currently gets as warm as 30C during the day.
Will I get bottle bombs if they carbonate at this higher temperature? Can I store the bottles in their current location for the two weeks they’ll need to carbonate, then move them? Should I first move the fermentor to the warmer location and let the finished beer reach the higher temperature before bottling? Or would it be best to find a way to store the bottles at the lower temp?
Many thanks for the help!