Saison beginner questions

So my primary question is how much longer should I keep my batch in primary fermenter (no secondary is planned) before bottling and about how long should I store in bottles before its prime for drinking?

Info:
Brewers Best Kit with Belle yeast.

OG was 1.050. 5 gallon batch. Pitched yeast 7 days ago. Airlock stopped bubbling yesterday on day 6. Haven't taken FG yet or disturbed fermenter bucket much.

Cooled quickly with copper coil "thingy" (forgot the name of it...still learning terms) and pitched yeast at ~75F. Stored in dark basement for first 4 days (external basement temp staying between 66-70F). Moved it upstairs for last 3 days (external temp hovering between 70-76F). Some internet recommendations mentioned doing this temp raise method with saisons so figured to give it a try.

The instructions from the kit are kinda vague in telling fermentation time in and say to only keep in the bottle for 2 weeks (seems short). Guy at the homebrew store said to keep in fermenter 2 weeks. and bottle condition 2 months (seems excessive time in bottle?). Of course with 2 cases worth of beer, I'll start a staggered tasting out of the bottles to see where its at but wanted some general thoughts and recommendations.

 

Thanks guys for the early feedback. Maybe about 10 days in (3 from today, so Tuesday), I'll take another gravity reading, then see if unchanged by next weekend then go to bottle. If it changed then I'll keep checking every 2-3 days after that until I see consistent readings then go to bottle.

As far as bottling, I guess I'll let them sit for at least 2 weeks then give 1 a try one. If it tastes great, I start drinking them. If it tastes "off" I'll wait another 2 weeks then try another to see if there is any improvement and so on. If after maybe 6-8 weeks I don't notice any further change in taste, then I'll just assume this is as good as my first batch will get and drink the rest.

Sound like a decent plan?

 

Took my first reading today and it came in at 1.005 (down from OG of 1.050). Instructions said FG should be between 1.011-1.015 so I'm actually lower than that which I'm guessing is pretty good after 7 days? ABV calculator says I'm at 5.91% which seems decent.

Tasted it after my reading, and it had really nice aroma and fruity flavors (typical banana, clove etc). Was a touch too bitter still however, but hoping that subdues with more aging. Appearance was awful though. Tons of sediment and murk came out through the spigot and slightly greenish yellow in appearance. So I did make a blunder in my first brewing attempt and realized afterwards that I didn't strain out the sediment from the boil pot. Everything from pot was dumped into the primary fermenter bucket (yep hop remnants, everything).

Any tips from this point forward on how to minimize the muck and sediment so not much ends up in my bottles? Current plans, based on my equipment and instructions are to run the tube from primary spigot down into a bottling bucket (where priming sugar mixture waiting), then out of that spigot into the bottles. Is there a detour I should take now because of 100% of the boil sediment in my fermenter? I don't have nor plan to buy a carboy.

 

Thanks. I'll take another reading on Wednesday (3 days later) and see if any change from 1.005.

Great idea about the mesh bag to filter out the muck before going into bottling bucket (no carboy/2nd fermentation here). I'll pick one up at the homebrew store.

Just for learning purposes had 2 questions from my situation:
1) Does keeping all that hop and various pot boil sediments dumped into my primary have any affect on how they yeast do their job/effect on final aroma / taste etc, vs. if I did a proper straining out d the sediment prior to pitching yeast in the primary?
2) By straining out the sediments with a mesh bag in transition from primary bucket to bottling bucket, will that have any impact on the bottle conditioning finishing touches on this beer (i.e. will the mesh also strain out most of the yeast from doing any final finishing in the bottle, or are the yeasts small enough particles to pass through the mess filter?

 

Sounds good. I'll go with the siphon method just above the trub out of primary vs. the spigot drain tube I was planning on. Plus a friend who homebrews told me that to use run the hose into a mesh to filter before liquid falls into the bottling bucket will oxidize too much and could end up messing up the batch. I guess that is another vote for the siphon method. Thanks for the input.

 

Thanks, you guys are teaching me a lot of tips quickly and more than trial and errors on my own (probably saving me a lot of time and money as well). I appreciate it greatly.

Do emersion coolers fit in typical 5 gallon pots/ kettles? This first batch, I cooled in the primary 6.5 gallon bucket (after adding cold water to bring it up to 5 gallon marker). I've read that its better to cool wort first in your brew kettle before transferring to primary but then I'm confused if you are doing extract kit, and you need to add additional gallons of cold water in the primary with the wort, how do you get to the recommended temp in primary then before pitching yeast without using the immersion cooler in the primary as well? Just wondering and a little confused on different things I've been reading.

 

I poured my 2-3 gallons of hot wort (150 degree boil temp) that including 100% of all the trub straight into my 6.5 gallon primary bucket sitting on the floor.

Then I filled my clean/empty boil kettle with cold water straight out of the tap (well water) and then dumped the additional cold water into the primary bucket to bring the volume up to the 5 gallon marker on the side of the bucket as required.

Temp after adding 2-3 gallons of cold water was still very hot per the temp reading (was reading around 120ish if I recall?) so then I used the immersion cooler in my primary bucket to quickly cool it down to 75 degrees as required to pitch yeast.

Then I pitched yeast and stirred well with sanitized spoon, sealed and put airlock on.

So what is the benefit/improvements to use immersion chiller in the boil 1st vs. the method I implemented by chilling in the primary? My method seems simpler but perhaps it produces a flawed final product?

Issues/lessons learned as I've been learning/reading afterwards:
- Using well water straight from tap vs. bottled or other types distilled water (possible off flavors or bacteria introduced?)
- Dumping from boil pot to primary fermenter is good for ariating. However, dump it through a mesh or strainer to catch/remove the trub.

 

I soaked it in a bucket bath with the cleaner, rinsed in the sink then sprayed it down with StarSan before dropping it in the fermenter. Hopefully that was sufficient, but I understand the contamination risks, so I'll use it in the boil kettle next time.

 

Bottling day was a success. ABV came in ~6.2%. Was able to hold the cane above the much and the bottling bucket looks pretty good as well as the bottled beers. Cloudy but minimal/no chunks. I'll sample 1 bottle in 2 weeks to see how its tating.

 

So found out last night talking with another friend who is a home brewer why my 5oz bag of priming sugar was barely over 1/2 used even though I measured out exactly 4oz as instructions said....I used a fluid oz measuring cup (Doh). I vaguely recall differnce between liquid oz and weight oz. from HS chemistry class, but never had to apply it anywhere in my life for the last 30 years.

So if this saison doesn't come out completely flat and uncarbonated it will be a miracle.

Just another learning curve thing to laugh at retrospectively I guess.