Too soon to bottle?

[Aes9471]

More of an afterthought really
I have spent the morning bottling my Woodfordes Wherry so whatever people post it's too late . I quickly checked the FG of the FV last night 1.050 down to 1.014ish after ten days in the FV didn't really get an accurate reading - as was a quick check to make sure it was safe to bottle. Had a proper check this AM and read at 1.012.

My questions are:-

Noted was still getting bubbles from the sediment, during bottling, was this due to a still active fermentation? Or disturbance, despite my gentleness? I guess a beer would still be fermenting after ten days but how long can a beer remain in an FV before the risk of contamination or airborne nasties can find there way beyond the lid (left just cracked open)?

As said above deed now done, primed with a 1/2tspn T&L each bottle. Will now wait for the bottles/caps to be forcibly removed, or 3 - 4 weeks for maturity YEAH LIKE THAT's GOING TO HAPPEN (scuse the raised voice )

[Minus The Bear]

If you think the gravity was pretty stable at 1012 then i think they should be ok.

Just keep them somewhere safe so if one does happen to pop you won't get in trouble!

[daveyk]

sounds fine to me......

I bottled a stable batch this week after getting on for 3 weeks in the fermenter (I not condoning that reckless action - OK) and I saw bubbles raising from the yeast too.

also i suppose you will kick start the fermentation a little by adding the sugar... otherwise the beer would be flat after conditioning.

Dave.

[stevezx7r]

As far as leaving the beer on the yeast cake - up to 3 weeks is the max most people leave it. After that the yeast cells break down and decompose which makes your beer taste cack.

[midasmesh]

I think its 2 weeks for the bottles and 3 weeks if you keg, before you can drink it.

[stevezx7r]

I think its 2 weeks for the bottles and 3 weeks if you keg, before you can drink it.

Nah, beer tends to clear and mature quicker in bulk, so it tends to become drinkable in a barrel before a bottle.

And the time it takes tends to be linked to how high the initial gravity is i.e. a 1050 ale will take longer to be ready than a 1030 ale. It's usually 1 week per 10 points of gravity, so, a 1050 ale will take about 4 weeks (if the final gravity is 1010) to be bang on.

Of course, I'm the first in the queue to start my barrel after two weeks no matter whats in it.

[Vossy1]

Agree with DaaB, from personal experience.

There's nothing worse than seeing a perfectly clear keg of beer, then the yeast farts, and a column of hazyness pursues the soon to be airbourne fart to the surface of the soon to be, non clear beer

[stevezx7r]

Yeah, I agree, now that i've thought about it

It has been quite a while since I last bottled so I'll remedy that by bottling my next batch, as penance