Thread: Homebrew beer, who's doing it?

@P38 and @kiwijames how do you store you beer while its aging?

Mines been in the hot water cupboard for 2 weeks now in bottles. My kestrel reads 19.3°c when I leave it in there over night.

Do I leave the bottles in there longer, or should I move them somewhere else? Note they are contained within a large plastic container with a lid just in case they pop, so no worries about spillage...just wanna know optimum place and procedure for nz conditions as all literature on the web in Australian or US where temps vary a lot from ours.

Cheers
Kim

Originally Posted by kimjon

@P38 and @kiwijames how do you store you beer while its aging?

Mines been in the hot water cupboard for 2 weeks now in bottles. My kestrel reads 19.3°c when I leave it in there over night.

Do I leave the bottles in there longer, or should I move them somewhere else? Note they are contained within a large plastic container with a lid just in case they pop, so no worries about spillage...just wanna know optimum place and procedure for nz conditions as all literature on the web in Australian or US where temps vary a lot from ours.

Cheers
Kim

@kimjon

I also place the freshly bottled brews in my hot water cupboard for a couple of weeks to allow the secondary fermentation to get a good start, then I move them out to the back room of my shed and place a sack over them to exclude the light.

Light can oxidise beer in the bottle and give it an off flavour.

Then I just forget about them for a couple of months.

I have just shifted a couple of dozen cider bottles, one batch bottled December 2014 and the second bottled February 2015.

These will be drunk throughout next summer.

Cheers
Pete

Originally Posted by kimjon

@P38 and @kiwijames how do you store you beer while its aging?

Mines been in the hot water cupboard for 2 weeks now in bottles. My kestrel reads 19.3°c when I leave it in there over night.

Do I leave the bottles in there longer, or should I move them somewhere else? Note they are contained within a large plastic container with a lid just in case they pop, so no worries about spillage...just wanna know optimum place and procedure for nz conditions as all literature on the web in Australian or US where temps vary a lot from ours.

Cheers
Kim

I have always just transferred it into the bottle and left it inside. The yeast needs a bit of warmth to ferment out your priming sugar and give the CO2 volume required to give the beer some fizz. Ideally the beer wants to run in its optimum fermentation range and will be with the yeast packet. 18 - 20 deg should be fine. There will already be CO2 in the beer out of the fermenter but not as much as desired. After a couple of weeks it should be carbed up but may require a week or more to condition. I have found the lighter beers both in colour and ABV are more drinkable earlier. I don't know how some people can wait months to condition a big stout or other but patience was never a virtue of mine.
I have been using corn sugar as of late to prime. I did find the carbonation drops are very convenient but sometimes a bit overkill resulting in too much head and over carbed beer. My Chargemaster powder scale is currently the best way to weigh out sugar into each bottle.
I have also started to use a 500ml bottle rather than the old 750 pint bottle. One can be not enough but two too many for my liking.
You should have a bottle filler to fill the bottles too (long tube with a spring valve at the end). You don't want to oxygenate your beer now that you've got it this far.

I've got the bug too.
On to our 4th brew, a chocolate malt stout.
So far have a stout, a bock and a cider to drink.
The stout was our first (Coopers) and it was bottled March 20th. It is improving with every bottle opened but only have about 10 left now.
I have to confess, my wife is the brewer. I am more the drinker.

Originally Posted by Shearer

I've got the bug too.

I have to confess, my wife is the brewer. I am more the drinker.

A perfect match then Shearer.

She's a keeper for sure.

Cheers
Pete