Beer

Feb 01, 2006 0 Replies

It doesn't matter what kind of beer you're making. When there are no more bubbles leaving the air lock then the fermentation is over. This is a most critical point for homebrewers. I believe you had your batch fermented at room temperature. This temperature is much too high for Pilsner. That's why your fermentation has stopped: because all malt sugar is gone! The first thing to do is now to put the beer in a very cold room, even in the fridge at 3-4 °C. You shouldn't wait for a second to do so because from the moment that the last bubbles have left the air lock the beer is very vulnerable to infection. Fermentation at room temperature may soon be over: sometimes it just takes few days and no week. So put it in the fridge as soon as possible! There the yeast will settle and after only 3-4 days all the yeast will be at the bottom. Avoid admitting fresh air to the surface of the beer. Sometimes, when I'm not sure, I blow some extra CO2 over the surface. You can start bottling after 3-4 days. It's not necessary to keep the beer in a secondary for weeks. You still need some yeast for refermentation, don't you? When the beer is too clear it may not contain any living yeast cells anymore and refermentation won't start up. How do you feed the bottles for refermentation? A good method is to freeze a part of the unfermented beer in the deepfreezer and to have it defrosted the day you bottle the rest. Poor a few spoons of that unfermented beer first into each bottle and -if necessary- poor a few drops of the yeast in the bottle as well (if the beer is too clear). You'll find out this works faster than adding sugar for making bubbles in the bottle. It may happen your beer is ready after a few


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