How long to wait to bottle after sweetening?

[DaveM]

Hi all,

I've sweetened by pee and it's been about 4 days and I haven't seen any action in there. It says to wait 2 weeks after sweetening before bottling in the recipe...but I have a lot of headspace in my carboy. A lot. Anyway, would it be okay to bottle this after 5-7 days if I haven't noticed any signs of fermentation? What would I be looking for, anyway? Bubbling? Clouding?

 

[Julie]

you could bottle in 5 - 7 days, take a reading now and another to see if there is a change and yes watch for clouding and bubbling. After you bottle leave the bottles upright for a few days and I would still keep an eye on the bottles for a few weeks.

 

[DaveM]

Thanks! I plan on using beer bottles with caps rather than wine bottles and corks, so keeping them upright definitely won't be a problem. I actually don't even have an accurate SG reading after I added the sugar...so I won't have anything to compare it to. I guess I'm foolishly only relying on visible effects of fermentation. I haven't noticed anything at all yet. So we'll see come Friday or Saturday when I plan on bottling.

 

[Julie]

My thought is if you take a reading now and then take another reading when you go to bottle and as long as it didn't go down that is one sign that fermentation did not start. Along with watching for bubbles, cloudiness

 

[Wade E]

You did use both sulfite and sorbate right?????

 

[DaveM]

You did use both sulfite and sorbate right?????

Oh yeah. I definitely used them. I guess I'm not overly concerned about all of the headspace, but I figured that the less time all that pee is exposed to the air, the better.

 

[Arne]

you could bottle in 5 - 7 days, take a reading now and another to see if there is a change and yes watch for clouding and bubbling. After you bottle leave the bottles upright for a few days and I would still keep an eye on the bottles for a few weeks.

Keep an eye on the bottles for a few weeks? What is the fun of watching empty bottles?? Oh yeah, I'm talkin about the poof factor. Poof and its gone, best be startin another batch. lol Arne.