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Outside
Trad climber
Truckee
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Oct 25, 2010 - 01:57pm PT
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Sounds like you had to much priming sugar in that particular bottle........
When you added the priming sugar to your batch....How did you do this?
The best way is to dissolve the sugar in about a pint of sterilized water then add to beer and stir it like crazy as opposed to dumping that corn sugar on the bottom of the bottling bucket and then siphoning the beer on top. This creates sugar "clumps" on the bottom of the bucket and the first 1/2 of your batch will be over-carbonated and the rest will not be carbonated enough.....
So I would expect more of your bottles to start exploding soon.....or when you open them you probably want to do so in the sink.....or play a good prank on one of your friends........good luck and Cheers!
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2010 - 02:03pm PT
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Sounds like you had to much priming sugar in that particular bottle........
When you added the priming sugar to your batch....How did you do this?
The best way is to dissolve the sugar in about a pint of sterilized water then add to beer and stir it like crazy as opposed to dumping that corn sugar on the bottom of the bottling bucket and then siphoning the beer on top. This creates sugar "clumps" on the bottom of the bucket and the first 1/2 of your batch will be over-carbonated and the rest will not be carbonated enough.....
So I would expect more of your bottles to start exploding soon.....or when you open them you probably want to do so in the sink.....or play a good prank on one of your friends........good luck and Cheers!
Read my posts...
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Outside
Trad climber
Truckee
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Oct 25, 2010 - 02:19pm PT
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I did....again...you never said how you added the corn sugar.....
The bottle size doesn't matter......you messed up on the priming sugar, not just by adding a little too much but by the WAY you added it. The temperature had nothing to do with it....and the stopper probably sealed itself with sugary beer after a couple weeks.......
beginners mistake...
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2010 - 02:29pm PT
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My FG was stable for 2 days prior to bottling and like I said, all of the 12oz bottles were fine and didn't have an over carbonation problem at all. When I add priming sugar I add it to the ENTIRE batch in the carboy and not just to the bottles.
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Outside
Trad climber
Truckee
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Oct 25, 2010 - 02:37pm PT
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How did you add the sugar to the carboy? Describe
So you went straight from the carboy to bottles?
Its better to transfer your finished beer to a plastic 5 gal bucket, add the correct amount of sugar AND technique then rack to bottles....
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 02:56pm PT
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How did you add the sugar to the carboy? Describe
Is that an order, Sir?
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boognish
Trad climber
SLC
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Oct 25, 2010 - 03:11pm PT
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Outside, why is it better to go from a secondary carboy to a bottling bucket and then the bottles? I bottle right out of the carboy. What is the advantage of moving it to a bottling bucket?
Thanks.
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Oct 25, 2010 - 03:31pm PT
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There is usually a fair bit of sediment in the secondary (or primary if you don't transfer) that you'll want to leave behind when bottling. If you use a bottling bucket, you can siphon from the fermenter quietly, and then stir the sugar well in the bottling bucket. If you put the priming sugar directly into the fermenter, you have to stir that sediment up to get the priming sugar well distributed.
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Outside
Trad climber
Truckee
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Oct 25, 2010 - 03:34pm PT
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Ghost....I'm not trying to be bossy...trying to help a guy out...brewing is something that needs correct technique to be sucessful...
You want to transfer into a bucket to remove additional solids(trub) that would be picked up by trying to bottle out of the carboy, they will sit in the bottle and cause undesired flavor and cloud up your beer.......and more importantly you want your priming sugar to be perfectly spread throughout the beer before you start bottling.(How you gonna do that in a fermenter with the bottom filled with crap) Otherwise you get over-carbonated and worst case (exploding bottles) in 1/2 your batch and the other 1/2 under carbonated.
More work...yep...better beer...yep.
Most good homebrewers will transfer their fermenting wort 1-3 times to clean carboys to reduce contact with the Trub.
EDIT: Froodish knows!
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2010 - 03:41pm PT
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How did you add the sugar to the carboy? Describe
So you went straight from the carboy to bottles?
Its better to transfer your finished beer to a plastic 5 gal bucket, add the correct amount of sugar AND technique then rack to bottles....
Usually I just drop my sugar in, stir the carboy (I try and keep my stir rod from going below half way to reduce the sediment stir up), give it 30-40 mins for everything to settle and for the sugar to start kicking in, then rack directly into bottles. I keep my racking cane about 1" above the sediment at the bottom. It's been working fine so far, the beer is definitively a little cloudy but nothing too bad. Mind you I've only brewed 5 batches thus far. Definitely still learning.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 03:52pm PT
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Ghost....I'm not trying to be bossy
Yeah, I know. Just the way you phrased it brought back memories of standing at attention in front of some junior officer who... Well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, no disagreement about what you're suggesting. Assuming that one chooses to bottle that way (adding priming sugar and siphoning/draining into bottles from a carboy/bottling bucket), then yes an extra racking is a good idea.
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Outside
Trad climber
Truckee
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Oct 25, 2010 - 03:54pm PT
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"Usually I just drop my sugar in, stir the carboy"
That is your problem....it doesn't dissolve as well as you think....you got a good chunk of sugar in the one bottle and BANG!! LOL!!
You can bottle out of your carboy if you want but when you add the sugar:
Boil 1.5 pints of clean water for 2 minutes to sterilize, let cool a little bit, now add your priming sugar to it and stir to dissolve.
Now...pour entire thing into your finished beer...it will evenly spread out much more evenly giving the correct amount of sugar in all the bottles.
Cheers!
Have you boiled over on your kitchen stove yet? Boiling sugar water all over your entire stove that you just paid 50 bucks for....now thats a good time!!
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adatesman
Trad climber
philadelphia, pa
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Oct 25, 2010 - 04:10pm PT
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^^^ Good advice there
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Oct 25, 2010 - 04:21pm PT
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A bottling bucket (with a spout at the bottom) will make your life easier. Boil the priming sugar as recommended (I boil the sugar with the water and use a 1 pint/5g batch), let it cool, put it in the bottling bucket, then siphon from your fermenting container onto the priming solution. That will help with the distribution. Give it a good (but quiet - no need to introduce any O2) stirring, then bottle. Your beers will have much better clarity and more even carbonation.
As for racking (secondary, tertiary, etc.), I'm of the opinion these days that unless there is some special need (fruit beers, etc.) that racking does more damage than letting it sit on the trub. Racking introduces O2 and is another chance to pick up contamination.
I focus more these days on getting a quick vigorous ferment (large active starters, late sugar additions for big beers) and then just let them go in the primary until ready to bottle or keg.
Speaking of unruly batches, here's last year's Imperial Stout which blew the bubblers off and tried to make a run for it. This year I think we'll leave a bit more headspace ;-)
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boognish
Trad climber
SLC
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Oct 25, 2010 - 04:57pm PT
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Thanks. Thats what i figured on the bottling bucket.
I dissolve the sugar in 2 cups of boiling water, give it a slow stir into the secondary carboy and then start bottling in 15- 30 minutes keeping the siphon off the bottom. I get a little sediment at the bottom of the bottles, but I mostly do porters and stouts so I don't worry about that much.
I took the trade off of time and clean up versus less sediment and a slightly cleaner taste. Its on my list of future improvements and upgrades.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 05:03pm PT
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This year I think we'll leave a bit more headspace ;-)
For a five gallon batch I use a 10-gallon primary fermenter (it's a 10-gal steel keg), and just run a blow-off tube from the "Gas In" port down into a jar of sanitizer. To transfer, I connect the out port on the primary to the out port on a 5 gal keg and do the transfer under fairly low pressure (with the bleed valve open on the secondary keg). No oxy, no splash, no disturbance of the crud on the bottom, no spills... And when it's done I just throw a blanket of CO2 over whatever headspace is in the secondary.
Transfer to final keg is the same -- keg-to-keg under low pressure. Then carbonate to whatever level I want.
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The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
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Oct 25, 2010 - 05:23pm PT
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Brewing beer is like hunting for food. I'd do it if I had too, but....
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Oct 25, 2010 - 09:12pm PT
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Ekat....the only thing worse than wort is drinking fermented tamalax....aye carumba...
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 25, 2010 - 11:10pm PT
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I brewed a batch of pale on Saturday. I used some fresh cascade that my dad grew. It sure looked like a lot, but I bet it was only an ounce or so.
I threw it in after the boil and let it steep. We'll see if I can taste the difference about thanksgiving or so.
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