Please help me save my Milestone Olde Home Wrecker!

[damian1978]

Hello folks, on the 29th July I started off a kit which I bought earlier this year - a Milestone Olde Home Wrecker, which I plan to mature until Christmas as it's a winter ale. I did it exactly as per the kit instructions except I made it up to slightly under 40 pints. Everything seemed to be fine, fermentation started as expected and a good healthy froth formed. I used a heat belt on the FV as it sits in my kitchen. The instructions with the kit indicated a 4-6 day fermentation and I took the SG at about 8 days and it was just as the instructions indicated it should be. I intended bottling the very next day, but with one thing and another I didn't get round to it.

Anyway, I prepped everything to get it bottled today, Bulmers bottles all ready to go, priming sugar dissolved in boiling water, equipment sterilised etc, etc. placed the priming solution in my spare FV and began syphoning the beer off the trub. Perhaps foolishly, I didn't check the SG again at this point. To my surprise, there appeared to be LOTS of bubbles forming in the syphon tube, although this did subside about a 3rd of the way into syphoning. However, looking at it more closely there appeared to be tiny bubbles rising to the surface of the beer, indicating that fermentation might not be complete.

I'm really worried about the beer now as I really don't want to muck it up. It smells delicious and I think it will make a really nice winter pint for Christmas.

Should I just go ahead and bottle anyway, given that I've now added the priming sugar? Or should I wait and let it continue fermenting and then re prime when it's finished and bottle it then?

Any advice would be much appreciated as I managed to get only a mediocre pint from my last Wherry and I don't want to cock this one up too as it will be a bit demoralising!

Cheers
Damian


This is the transferred beer with the bubbles showing.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

First of all, leaving it a few days after fermentation has stopped won't harm the beer. As long as the SG reads the same two days running you're OK to bottle. Ignore the presence or absence of bubbles. That's just dissolved CO2 coming out of solution.

[Lillywhite]

Don't panic. It's completed it's primary fermentation judging by your photo. Get it into the bottles and then forget about it.

[damian1978]

Thank you so much for the prompt responses and the advice. I've got it bottled up now ready to condition and mature until Christmas!

Thanks again................



Damian