S04 in 1.052

[SiHoltye]

Thank you, one and all. A small sugar prime for these bottles as I think they'll have a goodly amount of yeast suspended still from the repitch that will have been only 7 days before bottling if I bottle Saturday. No need to add too much sediment potential. Now I'm tempted to leave it a further 4 days or so for more yeast to drop out. It's under airlock in primary, so it'll have stood on the yeast cake for 16 days if I bottle and keg next Wednesday. I'll let gravity decide when sampling Saturday morning. If it's got closer to 1.014 and the wort looks clear-ish (not that it's easy to tell with a dark brew) I'll go for it. 17th Nov is far enough away for S04 to pack down nicely in the bottles. If still signs of ferment on top and/or wort noticably hazy/yeasty then I'll show patience and bottle next mid-week.

That's my priming question answered though. Thank you. Because this brew might have a fair bit of yeast in it at bottling anyway I'll use sugar for priming as the lower sedimentation option. I don't plan to make the ferment temp mistakes I did with this one again, that led to the lower attenuation and subsequent re-pitch, so in future I'll try spraymalt for priming with beer ingredient authenticity. Also I'll not tie up my bottling stick tap on the fermentor and so can prime the full batch in my bottling bin irrespective of where it's ending up. Priming individual bottles does feel a little precious.

[David Edge]

Ah, that's better.

You might like to try forcing some bottles in the airing cupboard for that shortish time, then tasting to see if they are better just before the competition. You might also care to put them in a bucket with a lid just in case...

Priming individual bottles does feel a little precious

Maybe so, but 1/2 tsp per bottles has served generations of UK beermakers well.

[SiHoltye]

I bottled/kegged this evening as time pressures loomed tomorrow. The Porter SG was 1.018 so 4.4ish%. I bottled 12 bottles using a bottling stick before kegging the rest. The second six bottles were not troubled by visible sediment from the primary fermentor so these 6 will go to the Sutton comp I've mentioned (all primed with ¼tsp dissolved sugar each). The sample jar tasting was very pleasing, with even my staunch pale ale favouring wife saying it tasted really good. Mind you she usually drinks Corona with a slice of lime, that or a bottle of Rioja! A pale ale is planned for Sunday, one to be drunk quickly and so not quite so much flavoursome fun in my eyes. I'm looking forward to doing this Porter again with better fermentation control. It is basically a copy of Fullers London Porter with S-04, but only fermented out to 1.018 this time instead of the suggested 1.014. I like sweetness though so perhaps upping the OG would be my suggestion to myself. This is for now the end of my news on this for a few weeks until I try the kegged beer and odd 6 bottles. Cheers all.