I did my first brew using the Essential Kit. I brewed American Wheat, following the instructions exactly, except for adding a hint of Sweet Orange Peel with 10 minutes left in the boil. This was on 10/16.
I can tell now (by lack of bubbles in the airlock) that active fermentation has ended. It has been 8 days.
Here are my questions:
Should I bottle it now, or let it sit for another week?
Can I/ Should I use the bottling bucket as a sort of 2nd stage fermentor for a week before bottling?
I may skip bottling and use a kegerator that a friend is giving me. If I go the kegerator route instead of bottling, are there any additional steps I should take?
Should I bottle it now, or let it sit for another week? I’d suggest letting it sit at least 1 more week, I generally let most beers stay in primary for about 3 weeks, a little extra time isn’t going to hurt anything, but moving it early can certainly be a problem.
Can I/ Should I use the bottling bucket as a sort of 2nd stage fermentor for a week before bottling? I wouldn’t bother but up to you.
I may skip bottling and use a kegerator that a friend is giving me. If I go the kegerator route instead of bottling, are there any additional steps I should take? If you’re kegging then you can go right from primary to the keg(no bottling bucket or priming sugar needed assuming you’re going to force carb), the process is pretty much the same though, probably a quite a bit easier in fact.
[quote=“mmessier2”]Can I/ Should I use the bottling bucket as a sort of 2nd stage fermentor for a week before bottling?[/quote]This would be counter-productive - if used as a secondary, there will be sediment on the bottom of the bucket which will then be re-suspended when you add the priming sugar.
