Carbonating bottles

[BourbonDrinker]

After bottle aging beer for 3 weeks I move my brews to my fridge to stop carbonation. Will this permenantly stop the yeast from further activity? If so, can remove the bottles form the fridge at this point, or will I need to keep them cold indefintely? I ask because I've brewed more than my fridge can hold!

[Baron Ken]

I keg and (occasionally) bottle from kegs so I can't help with bottle conditioned matters, sorry. However,

...I've brewed more than my fridge can hold!

I can help with that!

[Greenblood]

Refrigeration will not kill yeast. So if there are fermentables in the bottle, the beer will begin to ferment again if brought back to higher temperatures. If you are worried about them bottle bombs, your best bet is to keep them cold or look for a carbonation calculator. I am sure there are some free ones out there.

[BourbonDrinker]

Very helpful. Thanks. I found some online calculators that will be very helpful! I love brewing and don't want to let limited fridge space slow me down!

If I carefully follow the carbonation calculator I assume I can leave my full bottles at room temperature instead of fridging everything?

[Greenblood]

That is the theory. I have not done much bottle conditioning, but I imagine there is always some amount of risk of bottle bombs. So store them someplace out of the way, and covered in a towel just in case.

[phil6253]

Unless you go crazy with the priming sugar you shouldn't have any problems. I typically use 3/4 cup corn sugar per 5 gallon batch. The only time I had a problem was early on when my beer wasn't quite finished and I bottled it too soon, wow!

Phil

[Rob Martin]

Unless you go crazy with the priming sugar you shouldn't have any problems. I typically use 3/4 cup corn sugar per 5 gallon batch. The only time I had a problem was early on when my beer wasn't quite finished and I bottled it too soon, wow!

Phil

ditto. When I waited for the secondary to ferment to finish it was never a problem. When I bottled too early, while the bottles never blew, the carbonation would make a Belgian blush.

The only times I blew bottles was when I was making homemade root beer soda. They went off like firecrackers.

[klickcue]

After bottle aging beer for 3 weeks I move my brews to my fridge to stop carbonation. Will this permenantly stop the yeast from further activity? If so, can remove the bottles form the fridge at this point, or will I need to keep them cold indefintely? I ask because I've brewed more than my fridge can hold!

After reading your statement again, you will be fine.

In 3 weeks of room temperature, if they were bottled green, they would have blown the glass, topped off with priming sugar.

You can use this Nomograph to help with your priming sugar for the style of beer that you are brewing. The chart is for the temperature of the beer at the time of bottling.
http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f65.gif

Beer Smith will figure the sugar for you for your CO2 volumes for the style. Haven't used Pro Mash in awhile, but it should also do it.

This fellow has a very nice site and is very generous with his information. Plus a nice person to communicate with:
http://powersbrewery.home.comcast.net/~ ... ables.html

Normally, I let the fermentation go 2 weeks in the primary. With Ale, this is normally long enough, but it is a feel thing, looking at the activity and maybe pulling a sample for taste and SG.

If the primary is still and at it's final SG, I will bottle. I generally add yeast to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar to aid in the final carbonation. This active yeast will aid in the carbonation since most of the yeast in sludge has flocculated.

After aging, your yeast should paint itself to the bottom of the bottle without much worry of carry over into the glass.