Another noob question. I've taken hydrometer readings on three successive days and they are all giving me a gravity of 1.017. The airlock bubbles once every 3-4 minutes. It appears to be bottling time.
Trouble is, I haven't the time to do it right during the week so it looks like my beer will have been in the fermenter for two weeks once I finally get to it on Friday night.
Is this OK?
Also, any downside to using an empty dishwasher to air dry (but *not* using the heating element in the dishwasher itself) sanitized bottles?
The newbie questions continue, but you've all been very kind. Thanks.
Yep, it's fine. In fact, it's probably better to wait than to bottle too early. If the airlock is still making bubbles, even every 3-4 minutes, it's still fermenting a little bit, but Friday will probably be a good time to bottle. No worries.
Who says your bottles need to be dry before bottling? Don't bother, it's not worth the wait. So the bottles are a little wet? Who cares. The beer will taste the same with a couple of extra drops of water mixed into it.
At first glance, it might seem like the dishwasher would be a really nice place for bottles to dry out, but on second thought, it seems risky, or at least it seems that way to me. The dishwasher is a moist environment to begin with, and if you've got any microscopic food particles at all in the drain or stuck to the walls or racks, bacteria and yeast are likely to grow there, and it seems conceivable that bacteria or wild yeast could get into your bottles. If you are thinking about doing it anyway, make darn sure it doesn't smell bad in there at all, and there isn't any food or dirty stuff, and if I were you, I'd leave the door propped open a bit to let any drippings evaporate out more freely. Of course, if your goal is to sanitize, but then you wait a day or two to allow time for the bottles to dry, then your bottles really aren't sanitized anymore, are they? I always clean my bottles on the same night as I bottle. No worries that way.
so that is where you are going to leave them to drip dry after you've sanited them? If you mean, spray 'em with iodophore or let em sit in bleach water for a longish period of time (or some other sanitation method) and use the dishwasher as a bottle drying rack, sure sounds great. If you mean washing them in the dishwasher and letting them airdry to sanitise them.. no that is not satifactory.
sometimes i just put my bottles upside-down in boxes with paper-towel to catch the excess sanitiser (i use no rinse sanitisers for bottling). My bottle rack is at my gf's right now so that was my quick solution, the dishwasher would have been better when i was bottling in the kitchen though, some people are just a little more creative i guess :D.
I wasn't going to run the dishwasher, just use the rack as a storage place for the bottles after their C-Brite as I begin to bottle. It's more of a convenience thing, I guess. The upside-down in a case of beer with a paper towel on the bottom seems like a fine idea, too.
I like your idea more. It definitely shows you can think outside of the box (ok horrible pun, i apologize). Bottles will definely drain better in the 'washer.
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