I have a stout that will be ready to move from secondary fermintation and can be bottled this Thursday, I will not be home at all to bottle this beer. My question is am I better to bottle it on Wednesday and give the bottles a few extra days before I open them in two weeks, or am I better to wait till Saturday when I get back home to bottle? If I do that do I still need to let the beer set in the bottles for two weeks or do i give it less time? Sorry for the errors, I wanted to get this posted as quick as possible on my ten minute break at work. Thanks in advance.
All else equal, I'd let this sit until Saturday. Two extra days in the fermenter won't do any harm. Carbing and conditioning in the bottle should be unaffected as well.
It probably will still take two weeks. If this was a higher abv stout it could take longer than that. However, I always test a bottle at the 10 day mark to see what progress is being made. At 10 days if you don't get a hint of any gas escaping the bottle, you likely will have to plan on an extended carbonation period. Keep the bottles at room temp during the carbonation period.
Slightly OT, but man I wish the kit makers would stop putting unnecessary secondaries in their recipe instructions.
Also, specifying times as though they should be rigidly adhered to is sort of lame. They could specify more reliable qualitative and quantitative guidelines for making decisions about packaging.
Your bottles are your secondary A few extra days in primary is a good thing Carbonation time remains the same regardless of time in fermenter... extended aging (months to years) may require adding fresh yeast, but still takes the same time for standard ABV beers
I still use secondary's especially if I am adding fruit, nibs oak or other items for stouts,fruit beer,,,, and when I dry hop because I utilize the left over yeast cake in the primary. Dry hopping in the primary will leave more hop residue on the yeast cake than I want, and I prefer to not wash the cake. Oxidation may be a problem with secondary use, but lots of folks don't mind the beer I make. I must just be lucky
