Secondary fermentation of cold beer.

JohnB

Following your advice I've bought a heater tray to help with secondary fermentation. However, from a typical brew length of 23 litres I might end up with 40-45 500ml bottles. I can't get them all on the tray at once so some will inevitably cool to room temperature which, overnight, can drop to around 12 Deg.C.

The question is when I later place these 'cold' beers on the heater whether secondary fermentation will start at all and, if it does, will it be as vigorous as the first batch? Any advice gratefully received. Thank you.

HBO_Staff

This can be a common problem, and all you can do is your best with it. The good news is once you've bottled your brew, added the priming sugar (or carbonation drops) to each bottle and sealed them up, there is not much that can go wrong. They are safe and sealed up. The priming sugar will dissolve but at what speed depends on the temperature, so if you pop say half of the bottles on the heater tray for a few days, then move them off and leave to store to condition, the remaining 20 bottles could then be put on the heater tray for a few days. If you didn't use a heater tray it would just take longer for the sugar to dissolve and slow secondary fermentation down. Once the bottles have all had a warm for a few days (if using PET plastic bottles you will feel them begin to harden as the carbonation starts) they can then be stored somewhere cooler for a few weeks for them to properly condition and clear