Should I bottle already?

[Tal Orbach]

So... I have a batch that has been in primary fermentation (Nottingham yeast, 16C) for 17 days now. I added hops on day 12. On day 14 I took a refractometer reading - Brix 5.7; the day after I took another reading (expecting it to be identical, so I know fermentation is done) - 5.3.
Then I did something stupid - I decided to start cold crashing - turned the temp down to 12.
The next day - 5.3 again.
Then some people said I should raise the temperature to about 2 degrees above my fermentation temp (so - 18C). So I did it.
Today it's still at 5.3.

Now, the thing is - the hops are still in there, I'm afraid that giving it a day or two more (especially at relatively high temperature) would cause unwanted flavors from dry hopping for too long.
This is especially relevant considering the fact that the whole point of my current brews is to understand what different types of hops contribute to the final product, and so I use a very simple SMaSH, and only change the hops; and last time I didn't do the whole temp changing thing, so I'm afraid this might lead to more differences; and that then I won't know which differences come from using different hops, and which come from the temp play.

Would love to hear your thought.

Tal

 

[N0mad]

I'm not sure but it sounds like you just tossed the hops into the beer or are they in a muslin or cheese cloth bag if so you should remove them...

1) "Optional" move to a secondary fermenter if available leaving the hops behind
2) If you convinced the fermentation is done bottle it... most but not all are done by 14 days

 

[Tal Orbach]

Hops are loose - the fermenter has a very narrow neck, so if I'd wrap it, it would stay stuck inside. And I don't have an appropriate vessel for secondary fermentation.

 

[Nosybear]

Rack the beer off the hops and be sure of your priming.

 

[Tal Orbach]

Rack the beer off the hops and be sure of your priming.

Not sure I understand - what do you mean?
I know what racking the beer off the hops means, but do you mean to bottle now or to a secondary - like I said, I can't really do secondary..
And the second part - I totally didn't get.

 

[Yooper]

Not sure I understand - what do you mean?
I know what racking the beer off the hops means, but do you mean to bottle now or to a secondary - like I said, I can't really do secondary..
And the second part - I totally didn't get.

Bottle it. Rack the beer from the fermenter into a bottling bucket into which you've added priming sugar solution, so that you can separate the hops out without oxidizing the beer and proceed with bottling.

You want to be very careful to not slosh or mix or otherwise allow oxygen contact with your beer, or at least keep it to an absolute minimum, so a bottling bucket with a bottling wand is worth its weight in gold!

 

[White Haus Brews]

Sounds like you're probably done, especially if you've warmed it up and you're still not going any lower but it won't hurt to go longer in primary, even with the hops in there. Some people will add hops to kegs and won't take them out at all (heard of 3-4 weeks with no noticable flavor impact). I wouldn't go that far but an extra few days shouldn't hurt.

A good thing to keep in mind when you're deciding how much priming sugar to use - the priming sugar calculator will ask for a temperature. You want this to be the highest temp prior to cold crash.

 

[Nosybear]

Not sure I understand - what do you mean?
I know what racking the beer off the hops means, but do you mean to bottle now or to a secondary - like I said, I can't really do secondary..
And the second part - I totally didn't get.

Rack the beer - transfer it - to a secondary fermentor free of the hop debris, then wait until the beer is ready to bottle to bottle it.

 

[Tal Orbach]

Rack the beer - transfer it - to a secondary fermentor free of the hop debris, then wait until the beer is ready to bottle to bottle it.

As I said - I don't have a container I can use as a secondary right now. So - not really an option.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

Is a cold condition possible ? Hops should drop to a compact layer , especially if you add gelatine or similar.

I still get the occasional hop floatie in bottles , beers still don't turn grassy except when I do silly things like 500+ g dry hops in a single batch

 

[Tal Orbach]

Right now the temperature is on its way down (to whatever is the minimum the fridge allows.... don't know yet). IT spent the night around 13C. Is that what your mean? Planning on bottling tonight (but not hard-set on that. If it's a bad idea to do it - I can wait a few more days).

 

[Mark Farrall]

So there's a couple of reasons to cold crash. For the beer you're doing the most obvious one is to allow some of the heavier things to drop to the bottom to make what you're bottling clearer. For that you only need 1-2 days max for that effect to occur. The other ones move into the longer term cold conditioning/lagering side of the world and don't see appropriate for your beer.

Even with a cold crash you're stil probably going to get some hop floaties when bottling especially as you did a loose dry hop. I put a fine plastic mesh bag around my hose/auto-siphon end as I also dry hop loose and the bottling wand clogs up really easily.

 

[Tal Orbach]

Yeah. I was gonna do that (put a piece of mesh to strain it).
What do you think? When siphoning to the bottling bucket or when bottling? And on which end? (i.e. on the auto-siphon, at the end of the racking hose, on the spigot?
I was thinking of screwing the spigot to the bottling bucket with the mesh at the spigot entry point.

 

[Mark Farrall]

Most important is the hose in the bottling bucket, but I'd also do it on either end of the process getting it into the bottling bucket.

 

[White Haus Brews]

Honestly I don't think you'll gain much with mesh. Between leaving what's on the bottom of the fermenter and then again leaving behind what's on the bottom of the bottling bucket everything else will settle out in the bottle. You'll have definitely no matter what you do from the yeast fermenting the bottling sugar so no need to make life more complicated. Also if your fermenter has a spigot which is what it sounds like you won't need the auto siphon, just a piece of tubing from the spigot into the bottom of the bucket

 

[Tal Orbach]

Honestly I don't think you'll gain much with mesh. Between leaving what's on the bottom of the fermenter and then again leaving behind what's on the bottom of the bottling bucket everything else will settle out in the bottle. You'll have definitely no matter what you do from the yeast fermenting the bottling sugar so no need to make life more complicated. Also if your fermenter has a spigot which is what it sounds like you won't need the auto siphon, just a piece of tubing from the spigot into the bottom of the bucket

I know I'll have some sediment. The main point is to get read of hops debris. And no, my fermenter doesn't have a spigot. My bottling bucket does.