So i brewed a batch of Irish Red, yup my very first…now its spent two full weeks in primary, four full weeks in secondary, and its been bottle conditioning for a full week…and i cant see any sediment at all…so what gives…should i give it another week? perhaps a little time back in the 65 degree temps of my basement instead of the 70 degree temps its sitting in now???
Give it a couple more weeks to carbonate. Don’t worry about sediment. A beer is ready to drink when it’s carbonated and the flavor has melded. Three weeks is minimum IMO for carbonation.
70 degrees is fine until it’s carbonated, but after that colder is better to extend shelf life.
really?? you think three weeks to bottle carb? recipe calls for a min. of one week, up to two weeks, although i’m fully aware that it will only get better with time…should i try one or would it be a waste of my first bottle?
As aptly stated on another thread, sometimes the biggest obstacle in brewing is impatience…
The lack of sediment could mean that you had a very flocculant yeast and most dropped out in the fermenter. Thus the suggestion for giving it a little more time.
If you want to crack a bottle at one week, that’s fine. I used to do that when I bottled, just to see where it’s at. I would crack one each week and then decide when it was ready.
An easy way to see if your beer is carbing up is to use a 20oz pop bottle the next time you bottle. Fill it, squeeze the air out, and cap it like that. As it carbs the bottle will expand and give you an idea of what’s going on in the glass.
^Second this. Better yet, try one of those tiny soda bottles so you don’t waste more beer. I used to drink beers fours days after bottling them. Then seven days. Then a week and a half. Then two weeks and I finally got a good beer and wasted three.
I always sampled a bottle at one week. It was rarely fully carbed, but it was usually far enough along to judge whether it would be good, and I couldn’t resist the temptation. And yes, keep it a little warmer until the carbing is done.
Thanks for all the good advice, on my next brew I’m definitely going to use that soda bottle trick. Just would like to say also that as forums go, there is a great bunch of guys here, and I’m Looking forward to when I will be able to answer questions, not just ask them.
P.S…Mother Nature has intervened, I woke up this afternoon ( I work nights, not just a lazy slob) with a hellacious cold. Could not taste my beer even if i wanted to and decided not to waste my first ever taste of my own brew on this cold. My question now is, the one bottle i placed in my fridge, can it be taken back and placed with the others?
Just like others above, when I used to bottle I too opened one each weak to check for carbonation and flavor. I never had what I would consider solid carbonation in less than three weeks–even in warm (mid 70’s) storage while carbing.
Any instructions that tell you the beer will be ready in one week are simply wrong.
IMO the soda bottle trick is pointless apart from maybe some coolness factor, which wears off. You can tell when the beer is ready by opening one, pouring and tasting. That will also satisfy your curiosity.
…this comes from a guy who has zero patience for anything ever. 8)
Or just let it sit in the fridge and cold crash until your cold…well…crashes.
Being your first brew, I think it would be a good exercise to have one a little young and then sample one each week after. You’ll get a really good idea at what the aging process looks like and your palate will really notice the difference too.
I always found that process very fascinating.
If you’ve got it at a really warm temp (80+ degrees F), you may have decent carbonation in a week. In general, the earliest I’ll check for carbonation is after 10 days at room temp followed by at least a full day in the fridge (to help the CO2 be absorbed back into the liquid). Even then, it is rarely close to full carbonation. I find that carbonation is drinkable at 2 weeks and optimal starting around week 3.
