How long must an ale be conditioned in bottles outside of the fridgerator?

Question

I bottled my first batch of beer 72 hours ago. I am under the impression that bottled beer should not immediately be placed in the refrigerator, as this would prevent the remaining yeast from carbonating the bottle with the priming sugar. From googling, I seem to be be receiving contradictory information about when the beer can be placed in the fridgerator: after 3 days and up to the full two week conditioning period.

(P.S., is a bottle-bomb the result of only bottling beer that hasn't stopped fermenting, or would filling a bottle close to the brim also result in a bottle bomb?)

Thank you!

Answer 1

One week is Usually enough time to finish carbonating, however I've found that you get much better results if you wait at least two weeks.

Bottle bombs are typically the result of one of three things

• Incomplete Fermentation
• Infection
• Too much bottling sugar

If you made sure fermentation was complete, had no signs of infection and made sure you used the proper amount of sugar to carbonate you shouldn't have many issues.

You should have left an inch to an inch and a half of airspace at the top of your bottles, however a little less shouldn't be too much of an issue.