Brewing Bucket - how long can I leave it?

[supercooljt]

Hi folks, first time home brewer here. I bought a home brewing starter pack, and have attempted first batch. I used a brewing bucket and this beer kit (with brew enhancer and yeast): shorturl.at/ent12

The instructions for this state it should be left a week (until hydrometer readings are unchanged for two days) before bottling, however due to the pandemic and lack of travel my 5 day offshore trip ended up being 3 weeks and I've just got home, would I be wasting my time bottling this? I've read a few threads saying that beer can be left in the primary fermenter for a long time but I'm not sure if a brewing bucket counts?

I'm planning to use old beer bottles that I have saved, I've given these a good clean and removed all labelling - I plan to sterilize (powder came with starter pack), thoroughly rinse and then bottle with a teaspoon of sugar before capping (with sterilized caps). Am I ok to do this after significantly exceeding the time left in bucket? I used a heater cable wrap so the temperature will of been fairly consistent.

cheers

 

[Redpappy]

You are fine. Go ahead and bottle, keep bottles at room temp for 2 weeks, then through a few in the fridge for a couple days, then enjoy.

 

[supercooljt]

Great, thanks I'll do that

 

[ncbrewer]

I plan to sterilize (powder came with starter pack), thoroughly rinse and then bottle with a teaspoon of sugar before capping (with sterilized caps).

A tsp of sugar per 12 oz bottle is way too much. Use a priming calculator such as Beer Priming Calculator - Brewer's Friend to get the right amount. If you use too much priming sugar you can get gushers or bottle bombs - really not good.

And three weeks in primary should be no problem as long as you don't keep opening the lid. I just open two days before my planned bottling day for a gravity sample, and again on bottling day for another sample. Three days between gravity samples is really better - I use a narrow range bottling hydrometer and can detect smaller changes in gravity.

 

[VikeMan]

I plan to sterilize (powder came with starter pack), thoroughly rinse and then bottle with a teaspoon of sugar before capping (with sterilized caps).

A teaspoon of sugar (sucrose) is about 4 grams. In 12 ounces of beer, that'll get you close to 3.7 volumes of CO2. That's really high for most styles. What style are you brewing?

 

[supercooljt]

OK thanks for the info - I had a failed attempt at bottling last night, realised i'd got a bloody wine cork inserter instead of a capper!! Thankfully I only filled two bottles before trying to cap them....should of tested it on an empty one though. I've ordered a capper online that should arrive in the next day or two. It is larger beer bottles I've got, 22oz I think. There was a guide that came with my brewing bucket (Balliihoo) that said to add around 80g sugar to prime a barrell or 1 teaspoon per 500ml bottle, should I reduce that?
The style is just a lager - "1.5kg Barley Extract, Just Add Sugar And Water To Make 40 Pints". I used beer enhancer for fermenting in the bucket and was just going to use sugar for bottling.
cheers

 

[VikeMan]

It is larger beer bottles I've got, 22oz I think. There was a guide that came with my brewing bucket (Balliihoo) that said to add around 80g sugar to prime a barrell or 1 teaspoon per 500ml bottle, should I reduce that?
The style is just a lager - "1.5kg Barley Extract, Just Add Sugar And Water To Make 40 Pints". I used beer enhancer for fermenting in the bucket and was just going to use sugar for bottling.
cheers

4 grams of sugar per 22 oz bottle would not be dangerous, and should get you about 2.4 volumes of CO2. That said, a 22 oz bottle is not the same as a 500 ml bottle (for which your instructions were written). Speaking of the instructions that came with your fermenter, there is no one size fits all amount of priming sugar to use per "barrel," per 500 ml bottle, or per any volume . It depends on what level of carbonation you want, based on style and/or personal preference. The right way to figure out how much sugar to use would be to decide what level of carbonation you want, and then use a carbonation calculator, like the one @ncbrewer linked.