BeerBorg

I'm bottling my blonde ale today after cold crashing for four days.my beer temp is currently 40 degrees. My question: can I bottle at this temp, or should I let it warm to a certain temp before I bottle ?
Thanks,

I usually bottle it right out of the frig after cold crashing. I never thought about it. Now you got me wondering. Anyway I bottle cold and then set them to carb and condition for a month at room temp.

Monty

Either way, the beer will need to warm back up to fermentation temps to carb so it doesn't really matter from that standpoint. That said, whenever I cold crashed, I always bottled right away and never had any problems.

You can bottle right away, and then set the capped bottles in a "fermentation" temp zone. Allow them to warm back up, and leave them alone for a month or so.

I let it sit for about ten minutes to resettle anything that might have gotten stirred up when I take out of the fridge otherwise it gets bottled cold to keep the trub thick and on the bottom.

What Dag wrote....
I hate when I take the time to write a response and it doesn't post.....

Part of the reason I cold crash is to firm up the trub, so I obviously bottle it cold. Tip: place a towel under your capped bottles, because as they warm up there is going to be some condensation.

Bluejaye wrote:Part of the reason I cold crash is to firm up the trub, so I obviously bottle it cold. Tip: place a towel under your capped bottles, because as they warm up there is going to be some condensation.

Newspaper works well, and easy to cleanup.

Yeah, Mike, bottle it cold and then keep the bottled beer at room temp (or fermentation temp) for at least four weeks. Then you can chill the bottles you intend to drink for a day or two before you open them. I'll expand on this, because it's good advice that it took me a while to learn.

Extended warm conditioning helps most ales, with the exception of wheat beers and highly hopped beers, like IPAs. I was skeptical when I found out one guy warm-conditioned his beer for three or four months. But last year, I was able to fill my pipeline to the point where I actually had some bottles sitting at room temperature for four months, and they were amazing! Much better than the earlier tastings. This shows the value of a healthy pipeline.

Chilling for a day or two before drinking not only gets the beer to a nice serving temperature, but it helps solidify the bottle trub and clear up your beer. There's nothing wrong with getting a little yeast in your pour, but aesthetically speaking, clear beer is nicer. And sometimes that yeast can affect the taste. It can certainly affect your bowels sometimes.

Thanks to all for the great advice, everyone. I ended up with 59 bottles, so, something's not right in Soonerland. Ready date is Feb. 17, but saving them for Memorial day weekend at the lake.
Have a great day.

I'm not sure I understand your logic or reasoning, Mike.

Why is 59 bottles not right? And what did you expect to get as a yield that led you to this conclusion?

As a rule, I expect to get about 2 cases (48 12-oz. bottles) from a 5 gallon batch, but if I produced 5.5 gallons for some reason, and got 59, I'd be happy, as long as the beer was good. We can't be as exact as we'd like to be with this hobby; we certainly can't be as exact as a commercial brewery, but these things are part of the charm of this hobby.

I typically get 54 from a 5-5.5 gallon batch, so you're not that far off from what I would expect.

Anyone getting more than 53 1/3 12 ounce bottles from a 5 gallon batch has clearly made more than a 5 gallon batch

Or, they counted after consuming too many brews before counting.

I was going off what my paper work stated. A typical 5 gal brew would produce 48-12oz. Bottles.my first two batches produced 51, and 54 respectively. I figured I'd probably added too much water , or made some other type rookie mistake. It did have a slight watered down taste before bottling.I need to do a better job of measuring water volume. I merely poured the mash into the fermenter, then topped it off without measuring. Again, thanks for your input.
Have a great day.

Question: what is the typical production for a 6 gallon batch?

Mike, it seems like the amount of bottles on batch does very some. On a LBK sized batch the most I've ever got was 21 or 22 12 oz. bottles, some folks get more, On a 5 gal. batch I have got up to 55, but mostly on them I get 48 - 50. I usually rack my 5 gal brews to a secondary and loose some there probably. I wouldn't worry to much about the amount you get. As far as bottling temp and cold crashing on OT, I take the fermenter out of the fridge and let it sit while I'm getting everything else ready for bottling, bottle it cold and let it come up to room temp. give your beers 2-4 weeks at room temp and you will have beer.