I live in Singapore. Over there the ambient temperature is fairly constant at around 27deg C.
I am currently finishing to brew a Californian Pale Ale (It was a close of Sierra Nevada pale ale, using Whitelab yeast). My fermentation temperature has been 22deg C. Also I am not very experienced in brewing so please accept my apologies if this is a too dumb question.
I will bottle in a couple of days and I was wondering if you could provide me recommendation on how to store the bottles after priming.
Every time I read something about resting time and storage, I got that I should let the bottle rest at “room temperature” however I suppose that “room temperature” is not 30deg C. Hence my question:
After priming, should I:
1/ Let rest my beer 1 week/10 days at 22deg to complete the carbonation and then store it somewhere safe in my kitchen at 30deg?
2/ Prime and carbonate my beer at 30deg (i.e. store the bottle in my kitchen straight after bottleing and keep it there)
3/ prime, carbonate and store my beer at 22deg (i.e. keep it in my “brewing room” with AC on at 22deg)
4/ Prime carbonate and store my beer in my fridge at 4deg?
I recommend a combination of #3/#4. Prime and carbonate at 22 C for about 2 weeks, then refrigerate at 4 C. Lower temperatures will slow the carbonation process (4 C would slow it down too much), higher temperatures will speed it up but can also speed up staling reactions. You could perhaps carbonate for 1 week at 30 C then test one and if adequately carbonated, refrigerate it, but if you have the ability to carbonate at 22 C, that is better. Test after 2 weeks and refrigerate when adequately carbonated. Do not store at 30 C unless you are going to drink it all very soon. Store as cold as you can.
Ok it is what I though - I knew that yeast does not like high temperature but I was wondering if it was important for storage/carbonating phase. The answer is yes then.
One of my previous batch has been stored at 30 deg and indeed it began after a couple of weeks to develop some off flavours. I stupidly pitched my yeast at a too high temperature, so I though that this weird taste was due to the temperature of fermentation but the storage did not help obviously.
The most important thing is to be sure fermentation is complete before bottling. If you’re a,. or very close to, expected FG and the gravity remains the same for 3 days you’re usually safe in that regard.
thanks for your advises - I must admit I haven’t been on top of things regarding the specific gravity as I let it ferment for 2 weeks and when the bubbling is very slow, I proceed with the bottling. But it is possible that the fermentation was not completely done when I bottled last time. I will be more careful with this.
I also take good note on the dark room although I actually usually store then in cardbox boxes.
I think the way to proceed now is to bottle at 22 C and store them for one week at the same temperature (22C) then transfer everything into my fridge, it will prevent me to have a crazy electricity bill.
Check one after a week at 22C to see how well it is carbonated before putting all the bottles in the refrigerator. During the summer in my house (20 - 25 C) it usually only takes a week to carbonate. In the winter the temperature drops to 18- 20 and it can take 3 weeks. The only way to tell is to try one - not much of a sacrifice.
Tropical country brewer here (Brazil). I will say by experience, I wouldn’t bother the temperature your bottles will be stored. Just be sure that you reached final fermentation (3 equal consecutive gravity readings on different days).
After primary fermentation, and secondary fermentation, all the flavours have formed. It is not 5 grams of sugar per litre that would mess with your beer. Be sure to store away of direct sun light and your beer will be good.
So just to keep you up to date, I bottled last Sunday, the total batch was of 51 x 330mL bottle and as a test this is what I did:
1/ 10 went directly in the fridge (as the guy who sold me the priming sugar told me that I can directly cool it after priming… this sounded weird to me because I guess too cool temperature can inactivate the yeast, right?)
2/ the majority went in my room at 22deg and are going to stay there for one week before (in spite of silveiraedgar’s advice, it seems sensible to carbonate at the same temperature as the fermentation occured … it seems a “safe option” to me
3/ 10 have been bottled and stored at ambient temperature (i.e. 27C - ish) following silveiraedgar’s advise.