Just underprimed bottles, can I re-prime?

Just put my first brew in bottles 3 days ago, since then minding my business, going about my life waiting the good wait when it donned on me...SCHEISSE...let me explain.

When I was transferring my brew from fermenter to bottling bucket on top of my primed sugar solution, I had left the spigot of my bottling bucket open!!! Before I realised it, I can best estimate that I lost about 1.5 litres (about 3 pints) of beer. At the time I was upset about wasted beer, but oh well another 35 or so pints of the stuff left so I'm not gonna let that worry me too much...until today 3 days later I realise the true implications.

I lost 1.5 litres of beer most concentrated with priming sugar solution in other words, I could have lost most of/all of my priming sugar.

I'm not a hydrodynamic nor chemical engineer so I cant think of any easy way to estimate the amount lost (I can only suspect most).

Here's my question, is it possible to open all my bottles, poor them back into a bottling bucket, reprime and bottle as normal?

In order to risk overcarbing, I could take a gravity reading to estimate how much fermentable sugars did manage to make it in.

For the record, its a Kit extract w/ partial boil and steeping grains. Meant to be a blonde slightly hoppy ale. I was going for just shy of 2.0 carb units. I'm actually quite happy lower than that (I like low carb real ale styles even if quite blonde) but I wanted a bit more carb for maximum GF/family enjoyment.

Can I reprime in the way I described?

Should I reprime (I don't want to have to wait 3 weeks to find out I have to reprime all over again)?

Any help would be massively appreciated cheers!

The mistake was a blessing in disguise. If you had landed all of your priming sugar in a couple of bottles, they would have almost certainly exploded.

Your best bet is likely to pour back into your bottling bucket, let it sit for a couple of days to consume the rest of the sugar, and then start the process over again. (Only this time, make sure your priming solution is properly mixed.)

I've had mixed results trying to fix under carbed beer. My best result was to do about what you're thinking.

I had a stout, a beer that is forgiving of mistakes, or at least good at covering them up, that didn't carb at all after about a week. No fizz. None. I opened all the bottles and carefully and slowly poured them into an empty primary. Added I forget how much Turbinado brown sugar, maybe a cup, and a rehydrated pack of Safale US-05 yeast.

I let this sit about two weeks, transferred back into a bottling bucket, primed and bottled as usual. It wasn't the best ever, but if was still plenty fine.

Zuljin said:

I've had mixed results trying to fix under carbed beer. My best result was to do about what you're thinking.

I had a stout, a beer that is forgiving of mistakes, or at least good at covering them up, that didn't carb at all after about a week. No fizz. None. I opened all the bottles and carefully and slowly poured them into an empty primary. Added I forget how much Turbinado brown sugar, maybe a cup, and a rehydrated pack of Safale US-05 yeast.

I let this sit about two weeks, transferred back into a bottling bucket, primed and bottled as usual. It wasn't the best ever, but if was still plenty fine.

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Out of curiosity, why did you add more yeast and wait 2 weeks for fermentation? Why not let the priming sugar ferment completely on it's own, then re-prime and bottle. Just seems like a quicker solution...

Thanks.

Don't put the beer back in your bucket, you'll run the risk of oxidyzing the beer that way. If you think the beer is going to be undercarbed, let them sit for a couple weeks to ferment the sugar that is already in there. Then uncap them, let the co2 dissipate for a few minutes, get some priming tablets and add them. Then mix up a little yeast in some water and get a children's medicine dropper and add a few ml of yeast to each bottle, and then re-cap and let them carb and condition as normal.

There's no way to move the beer from the bottles to a bucket to re-prime them without pouring through the air.....oxygen + beer = Liquid Cardboard.

If you're going to attempt to recarb a beer. Then do it IN THE BOTTLE, where there's still a presence of co2 to protect them.

Figured I'd guarantee myself a good F/M, food to microorganism ratio. If it didn't carb, maybe I was short on one, the other or both. So, I put in food, the sugar, and microorganisms, the yeast. It worked.

I'd love to tell you what my gravities were, but I lost the file from that brew.

I'm going to have to disagree strongly with Revvy. If you think there's a chance that you didn't mix your priming sugar well, as you indicate, do not leave the beer capped in bottles. Doing so is of the few things in brewing that can actually hurt you.

MalFet said:

I'm going to have to disagree strongly with Revvy. If you think there's a chance that you didn't mix your priming sugar well, as you indicate, do not leave the beer capped in bottles. Doing so is of the few things in brewing that can actually hurt you.

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Then he can uncap them now and let them sit....pouring them back into a bucket a cure worse than the original condition.

I would just isolate the bottles, and if the few with the excess co2 blow, have them blow safely, that's still of a risk than ruining the entire run of beer from o2 exposure.

Revvy said:

Don't put the beer back in your bucket, you'll run the risk of oxidyzing the beer that way. If you think the beer is going to be undercarbed, let them sit for a couple weeks to ferment the sugar that is already in there. Then uncap them, let the co2 dissipate for a few minutes, get some priming tablets and add them. Then mix up a little yeast in some water and get a children's medicine dropper and add a few ml of yeast to each bottle, and then re-cap and let them carb and condition as normal.

There's no way to move the beer from the bottles to a bucket to re-prime them without pouring through the air.....oxygen + beer = Liquid Cardboard.

If you're going to attempt to recarb a beer. Then do it IN THE BOTTLE, where there's still a presence of co2 to protect them.

Click to expand...

This is less risky than what I did. And here's where I should reemphasize, careful and slow pouring.

And should probably say the "mixed results" was the second time I tried something similar, but in a party pig. The second time, it seemed like it was working, but in the end, well, I made some great compost starter. But that was trying to naturally carb up a party pig for reuse. There were other issues too. That pig has retained the flavor of other experiments.

MalFet said:

I'm going to have to disagree strongly with Revvy. If you think there's a chance that you didn't mix your priming sugar well, as you indicate, do not leave the beer capped in bottles. Doing so is of the few things in brewing that can actually hurt you.

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From what was said the spigot was open so most of the concentrated sugar solution was lost to spillage. The rest should have mixed well enough.

I would do as Revvy suggested.

kh54s10 said:

From what was said the spigot was open so most of the concentrated sugar solution was lost to spillage. The rest should have mixed well enough.

I would do as Revvy suggested.

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Oh yeah, good catch. The priming sugar went on the floor. There's probably no excess sugar in any of the bottles.

MalFet said:

I'm going to have to disagree strongly with Revvy. If you think there's a chance that you didn't mix your priming sugar well, as you indicate, do not leave the beer capped in bottles. Doing so is of the few things in brewing that can actually hurt you.

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WTF please someone explain this!!!

After some of the controversy in this thread I don't know what to do.

Revvy's solution seems the most legit...but thats a lot more expenditure and time than i would have liked to commit at this time (busy and poor time for moi).

I was leaning to just drinking through a bunch of undercarbed beer until MalFet's comment...how can leaving fermented beer in sterilised bottles with little fermentation happening be bad?!!!!

But thanks all for the responses...first time RDWHAHB doesn't fly

Revvy said:

Don't put the beer back in your bucket, you'll run the risk of oxidyzing the beer that way. If you think the beer is going to be undercarbed, let them sit for a couple weeks to ferment the sugar that is already in there. Then uncap them, let the co2 dissipate for a few minutes, get some priming tablets and add them. Then mix up a little yeast in some water and get a children's medicine dropper and add a few ml of yeast to each bottle, and then re-cap and let them carb and condition as normal.

There's no way to move the beer from the bottles to a bucket to re-prime them without pouring through the air.....oxygen + beer = Liquid Cardboard.

If you're going to attempt to recarb a beer. Then do it IN THE BOTTLE, where there's still a presence of co2 to protect them.

Click to expand...

Sorry to disagree with a pro, but I just had this issue with a cream ale.
Left them in the bottle originally for 5 weeks and no carbonation. I found a few that we're REALLY carbonated (and thank God didn't explode), so I figured the problem was unevenly distributed priming sugar.
Figured I could either toss the batch or try a fix, so I very carefully poured all my remaining bottles back into the bucket, added new priming sugar (corn), and immediately rebottled. No oxidation or infection to speak of, it actually improved the flavor. I would recommend doing that and not worry so much about the oxidation factor. Just pour carefully.

DerStoff said:

WTF please someone explain this!!!

After some of the controversy in this thread I don't know what to do.

Revvy's solution seems the most legit...but thats a lot more expenditure and time than i would have liked to commit at this time (busy and poor time for moi).

I was leaning to just drinking through a bunch of undercarbed beer until MalFet's comment...how can leaving fermented beer in sterilised bottles with little fermentation happening be bad?!!!!

But thanks all for the responses...first time RDWHAHB doesn't fly

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And malfet is just saying that if the sugar is unevenly distributed, then several bottles will be way over carbed and could possibly explode. It's happened to me and does suck, but if you put your carbing beers in a plastic tub or something then that can alleviate the mess and danger of broken glass.

Malfet thought you had a few bottles with TOO MUCH sugar in there. You don't all the sugar that you put in the bottom of the fermenter went onto the floor. He jumped the gun and confused the issue.

You have under primed bottles, how underprimed we don't know, because in all honesty we don't know how much sugar is in there.

So my solution, though time consuming allows the sugar in there to be fermented in the bottle. Then you're going to open the bottles and vent that co2 out, and start from scratch by adding the correct amount of sugar, and some fresh yeast.

A lot of new brewers, and some not so new brewers think you should put the beer back in the bucket and re-prime, but they fail to come up with a closed system that prevents you from pouring the beer into a mass of oxygen. No matter how slow and careful you would be, like Zuilgin mentioned, in truth you're pouring into an airspace, and that's going to harm your beer.

My way keeps the beer safely in co2, and prevents you from having bottle bombs when you add fresh sugar, by letting the priming sugar that is in there ferment out.

Sorry about it taking time, BUT there's no quick fix for this...either drink under carbed beer, or fix the beer and let it re-carb....the choice is up to you.

guldalian said:

Sorry to disagree with a pro, but I just had this issue with a cream ale.
Left them in the bottle originally for 5 weeks and no carbonation. I found a few that we're REALLY carbonated (and thank God didn't explode), so I figured the problem was unevenly distributed priming sugar.
Figured I could either toss the batch or try a fix, so I very carefully poured all my remaining bottles back into the bucket, added new priming sugar (corn), and immediately rebottled. No oxidation or infection to speak of, it actually improved the flavor. I would recommend doing that and not worry so much about the oxidation factor. Just pour carefully.

Click to expand...

But how long has the beer been in the bottles? How do you know they won't turn into liquid cardboard? It's not an instant thing. It happens over time.

Revvy said:

Don't put the beer back in your bucket, you'll run the risk of oxidyzing the beer that way. If you think the beer is going to be undercarbed, let them sit for a couple weeks to ferment the sugar that is already in there. Then uncap them, let the co2 dissipate for a few minutes, get some priming tablets and add them. Then mix up a little yeast in some water and get a children's medicine dropper and add a few ml of yeast to each bottle, and then re-cap and let them carb and condition as normal.

There's no way to move the beer from the bottles to a bucket to re-prime them without pouring through the air.....oxygen + beer = Liquid Cardboard.
co2 to protect them.

Click to expand...

If you're going to attempt to recarb a beer. Then do it IN THE BOTTLE, where there's still a presence of

Revvy legendarily helpful as always, thanks for helping!

EDIT Read the responses that were posted while composing this originally.

Well if it is even salvagable, I will do this. Priming tablets, I can get those fine.

Yeast, have 2 packets that came with coopers kits, if its just for this re-carb jump start I'd rather use these than more expensive stuff.

You said 'mix it it water'. Do you mean rehydrate or literally what you said?

Also, with the whole eyedropper thing, would I be aiming to be consistent with yeast per bottle, or is it just trying to get some extra yeast in their to awaken their fallen comrades?

Thanks millions again

PS GF's dad is not going to be happy about running the aquarium heater water bath for another 5-6 weeks through the dead of winter, his share of the beer just increased.

guldalian said:

And malfet is just saying that if the sugar is unevenly distributed, then several bottles will be way over carbed and could possibly explode. It's happened to me and does suck, but if you put your carbing beers in a plastic tub or something then that can alleviate the mess and danger of broken glass.

Click to expand...

But malfet got it wrong. The sugar went out the bottling bucket, even if there's any 'uneven distribution' it's not going to be enough sugar to over carb the beer.

DerStoff said:

Revvy legendarily helpful as always, thanks for helping!

But honestly, if I've got to wait a few weeks, go through this song and dance, is it even going to be remotely palatable? Its only beer kit, dme, some steeped grains and hops, I put a lot of thought and work in, but I'm really frustrated at such a stupid mistake, and having only realised too late...

So I wait a few weeks or do this thing now? Again tough to say if only a small amount or no sugar made it into these bottles...

Thank you thank you thank you

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If you leave it alone, and do as I say, it will be normal. If you dump it into a bucket, then you run the risk of ruining the beer.

Fixing carbonation will not render your beer unpalatable. Why would you think that?

If you left the bottles to condition long enough they would probably carbonate ok. But, likely it would take longer than the beer would be good. A hoppy blonde ale would get unhoppy and stale sooner.

If you have a source of co2 you might fill the bucket with it then slowly lower the bottle into the gas to pour it out of the bottles. That would protect from the oxygen.

This, IMO, would not be much easier or better than what Revvy suggests.

If you do pour all the beers back into the bucket, do it very gently and be prepared to drink them very quickly before you have a bunch of Blonde Cardboard ales.

Revvy said:

Fixing carbonation will not render your beer unpalatable. Why would you think that?

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Cuz im being a whiny little ____. Need to relax and have any brew! Sorry for being a pain with such a daft situation and thanks so much for the help!

Revvy said:

But how long has the beer been in the bottles? How do you know they won't turn into liquid cardboard? It's not an instant thing. It happens over time.

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They've been in the bottle and I've been drinking them for about 6 weeks now, after re-priming. Still taste great! No oxidation.

Revvy said:

But malfet got it wrong. The sugar went out the bottling bucket, even if there's any 'uneven distribution' it's not going to be enough sugar to over carb the beer.

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How on earth could you possibly know that? Tapped buckets don't drain bottom to top.

@OP: If you think there's a chance that the priming sugar got distributed unevenly, you'll want to do something about that. If you don't think that's a problem, you very well might be fine. Obviously, I have no way of knowing what the actual situation is, and anyone who tells you that they do is making **** up.

MalFet said:

How on earth could you possibly know that? Tapped buckets don't drain bottom to top.

@OP: If you think there's a chance that the priming sugar got distributed unevenly, you'll want to do something about that. If you don't think that's a problem, you very well might be fine. Obviously, I have no way of knowing what the actual situation is, and anyone who tells you that they do is making **** up.

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He put the priming sugar in the bottom of the bucket, like most of us do, correct? If the spigot was open when he did that, then what more than likely was going out the bottom of the bucket while he was racking on top of it?

I don't see how it would be anything else going out the bottom of the bucket, than what was added first, the priming sugar.

*shrug*

MalFet said:

How on earth could you possibly know that? Tapped buckets don't drain bottom to top.

@OP: If you think there's a chance that the priming sugar got distributed unevenly, you'll want to do something about that. If you don't think that's a problem, you very well might be fine. Obviously, I have no way of knowing what the actual situation is, and anyone who tells you that they do is making **** up.

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True, but i wish I even knew. This much I know. About 1-1.5 litres of beer successfully mixed with about 80g of sucrose, after that beer/sucrose mixture began flowing out of the spigot at a rate slower than that of the beer flowing in from my fermenter. Based on the volumes of beer in FV and minus yeast cake and what ended up in bottle-bucket, i came arrived at 1.5 litres lost. Some, if not most of that 1.5 loss included some of the original 1litre beer sugar concentrate.

I suspect there is some sugar in these badboys. I've got all my bottles in a giant water bath bucket (with aqua heater to keep them at about 71F (20c)) covered by some cardboard and old sheets for insulation i.e. bottle bombs don't scare me...losing a whole batch of beer does.

Either way, I think I must wait a few weeks before doing anything as otherwise I may or may not have unfermented sugars still in, and end up with overcarbination.

just a nuisance of a silly mistake this is

Revvy said:

He put the priming sugar in the bottom of the bucket, like most of us do, correct? If the spigot was open when he did that, then what more than likely was going out the bottom of the bucket while he was racking on top of it?

I don't see how it would be anything else going out the bottom of the bucket, than what was added first, the priming sugar.

*shrug*

Click to expand...

Believe it or not, I've actually put significant time into testing this question on commercial coffee extraction tanks of roughly the same size and shape as a bottling bucket. It doesn't work like you assume it does. Spigoted buckets don't drain from bottom to top. Concentrated liquid in the bottom of a tank will typically stay relatively put until the water level gets low, at which point increased turbulence will mix it into solution.

Maybe his bucket worked like that, maybe it didn't. Neither you nor I have any way of knowing.

Lets call Myth Busters.

DerStoff said:

True, but i wish I even knew. This much I know. About 1-1.5 litres of beer successfully mixed with about 80g of sucrose, after that beer/sucrose mixture began flowing out of the spigot at a rate slower than that of the beer flowing in from my fermenter. Based on the volumes of beer in FV and minus yeast cake and what ended up in bottle-bucket, i came arrived at 1.5 litres lost. Some, if not most of that 1.5 loss included some of the original 1litre beer sugar concentrate.

I suspect there is some sugar in these badboys. I've got all my bottles in a giant water bath bucket (with aqua heater to keep them at about 71F (20c)) covered by some cardboard and old sheets for insulation i.e. bottle bombs don't scare me...losing a whole batch of beer does.

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Fair enough. I've got a gnarly inch-wide scar in my arm to remind me why pressurized bottles should be treated carefully, but I certainly won't try to tell you what you should or shouldn't be afraid of. Just don't forget that overpressurized bottles are more likely to blow when you are handling them than when sitting under cardboard.

If you have a way of opening the bottles and letting them ferment out the sugar while open, like Revvy suggests, that's what I'd do, but certainly there's a reasonable chance that you'll have no problems otherwise.

Right, either way, one major difference between what you two seem to be saying is the addition of more yeast.

Will there not still be yeast in their in a few weeks if I keep the bottles at 70F? Could I not just add sugar to each bottle, recap and then wait again?

I'm totally fine with adding more yeast, but if i have to a few questions:

Revvy you said 'mix the yeast with water' did you meant rehydrate or litterally what you said?

Also, when putting the yeast into the bottles would I be aiming at getting the same amount per bottle or just ensuring I'm getting some amount of new yeast in their to awaken their fallen comrades (I made this silly joke earlier in an edited post, sorry to anyone who hated it the first time).

Also, also, I've got 2 packets that came with the coopers beerkits, please tell me i can use them instead?

Cheers a million

MalFet said:

Believe it or not, I've actually put significant time into testing this question on commercial coffee extraction tanks of roughly the same size and shape as a bottling bucket. It doesn't work like you assume it does. Spigoted buckets don't drain from bottom to top. Concentrated liquid in the bottom of a tank will typically stay relatively put until the water level gets low, at which point increased turbulence will mix it into solution.

Maybe his bucket worked like that, maybe it didn't. Neither you nor I have any way of knowing.

Click to expand...

Doesn't this support the idea that the bottles are now underprimed? If as you say the bottom stays relatively put until the water level gets low to mix? But as the liquid was being added the first part of the solution, the most concentrated portion, was already on the floor!

I don't "know" but my educated guess is that a good portion of the priming solution was in the spilled portion.

I still support Revvy's idea as the best solution. Is it the only way? No.

MalFet said:

Fair enough. I've got a gnarly inch-wide scar in my arm to remind me why pressurized bottles should be treated carefully, but I certainly won't try to tell you what you should or shouldn't be afraid of. Just don't forget that overpressurized bottles are more likely to blow when you are handling them than when sitting under cardboard.

If you have a way of opening the bottles and letting them ferment out the sugar while open, like Revvy suggests, that's what I'd do, but certainly there's a reasonable chance that you'll have no problems otherwise.

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ah, my sense of humour does not internetize well. I don't mean to trivialise such horrors nor condescend to someone going out of their way to help a complete stranger, please don't take what I said to mean that

I just meant that if I let the yeasties go after what little sugar there may be for the next 2-3 weeks, open them up and let the gas escape, then re-carb, would that not be ok...

or is what you're saying that if there is anything close to moderate carbonation after 2-3 weeks and I try to recarb I will could end up with beer shrapnel inside me?...cuz I like beer inside me....just not that way!

DerStoff said:

Right, either way, one major difference between what you two seem to be saying is the addition of more yeast.

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I don't know why you would need to add more yeast. I suspect that Revvy meant to say sugar there, but I'll let him speak for himself.

kh54s10 said:

Doesn't this support the idea that the bottles are now underprimed? If as you say the bottom stays relatively put until the water level gets low to mix? But as the liquid was being added the first part of the solution, the most concentrated portion, was already on the floor!

I don't "know" but my educated guess is that a good portion of the priming solution was in the spilled portion.

I still support Revvy's idea as the best solution. Is it the only way? No.

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Do you fully understand revvy's method? I'm a bit confused and he seems to have moved on before I could get some elaboration (I am a HB youngling and often don't understand even the most simple brewtalk). Could you, or anyone, help clarify?

kh54s10 said:

Doesn't this support the idea that the bottles are now underprimed? If as you say the bottom stays relatively put until the water level gets low to mix? But as the liquid was being added the first part of the solution, the most concentrated portion, was already on the floor!

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Huh? If the concentrate is late to mix, why would it be the first thing out of the spout?

kh54s10 said:

I don't "know" but my educated guess is that a good portion of the priming solution was in the spilled portion.

I still support Revvy's idea as the best solution. Is it the only way? No.

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Do whatever you want. Fact is, neither of us has any idea, and no amount of educated guessing is going to change that. When exploding glass projectiles are in the mix, I tend to advocate caution.

DerStoff said:

ah, my sense of humour does not internetize well. I don't mean to trivialise such horrors nor condescend to someone going out of their way to help a complete stranger, please don't take what I said to mean that

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No worries man, and I certainly didn't take anything you said as condescending.

DerStoff said:

I just meant that if I let the yeasties go after what little sugar there may be for the next 2-3 weeks, open them up and let the gas escape, then re-carb, would that not be ok...

or is what you're saying that if there is anything close to moderate carbonation after 2-3 weeks and I try to recarb I will could end up with beer shrapnel inside me?...cuz I like beer inside me....just not that way!

Click to expand...

If anything is way over-primed (and it very well might not be), it would already blow or be close to blowing by the 3 week mark. If you do it now after three days in the bottle, you'll probably be able to diagnose the situation yourself. If you a lot of gas escaping from a couple of bottles, that's a good sign that a few bottles got overdosed.

MalFet said:

Huh? If the concentrate is late to mix, why would it be the first thing out of the spout?



Do whatever you want. Fact is, neither of us has any idea, and no amount of educated guessing is going to change that. When exploding glass projectiles are in the mix, I tend to advocate caution.

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Well I guess I am assuming that the remainder, after the spigot was closed got sufficiently mixed.

To the OP:
I don't think you really need to add any yeast, there should be plenty. Assuming the priming sugar was mixed relatively well I would let them condition for 2 weeks to let the yeast ferment out the priming sugar. In the mean time I would get some priming tablets. Then pry up the caps just enough to release the pressure. Allow the beers to go flat again, how long? I don't really know. Then add the priming tabs and recap.

To be sure there is enough yeast you could add some. Again, how much? I don't know.

Most of my carbonation problems have been on the too much end.

MalFet said:

No worries man, and I certainly didn't take anything you said as condescending.



If anything is way over-primed (and it very well might not be), it would already blow or be close to blowing by the 3 week mark. If you do it now after three days in the bottle, you'll probably be able to diagnose the situation yourself. If you a lot of gas escaping from a couple of bottles, that's a good sign that a few bottles got overdosed.

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Do you really think any could actually be overdosed?? I'm a bit confused by what you seem to think has happened. It seems you are under the impression (having some experience in a similar area relating to mixing liquids) that even though I certainly lost some amount of sugar, the way fluid dynamics work is that some of the early bottles actually took in more sugar than they ought to have?

Unfortunately like all things HB there's not a simple consensus view.

I don't entirely understand Revvy's suggestion but see his point about oxygen risk.

What is it that you think I'm best to do considering (and rightly so) the very possible risk of dangerous bottle bombs due to an unknown amount of priming sugar in a beer? i.e. the cautious approach?

kh54s10 said:

Well I guess I am assuming that the remainder, after the spigot was closed got sufficiently mixed.

To the OP:
I don't think you really need to add any yeast, there should be plenty. Assuming the priming sugar was mixed relatively well I would let them condition for 2 weeks to let the yeast ferment out the priming sugar. In the mean time I would get some priming tablets. Then pry up the caps just enough to release the pressure. Allow the beers to go flat again, how long? I don't really know. Then add the priming tabs and recap.

To be sure there is enough yeast you could add some. Again, how much? I don't know.

Most of my carbonation problems have been on the too much end.

Click to expand...

Yeah see all these unknowns are not only dangerous (bottle bombs) but really time consuming (waiting for beer to go flat...how could anyone who loves beer know this?) and if I'm gonna add priming tab (some reputation for overcarbing) I wanted a low-carbed ale'y type thing anyway, adding new yeast(more overcarbing, bottle bombs again), how to add said yeast (rehydrate first? a starter?)....arrghhh

I think I will just drink a non-carbonated fermented malt beverage and make bloody well sure that next time my taps are closed before I start racking my precious libations onto terra f*ing firma!

Anyone want to hate on this idea?

DerStoff said:

I don't entirely understand Revvy's suggestion but see his point about oxygen risk.

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it's a certainty not a risk. no matter how "carefully" (whatever that means for a liquid pouring out of a bottle) you pour a beer out it will be traveling through the air, no way around that. uncapping each bottle and priming is the only way to avoid O2 pickup in this case.

wait until you keg your first batch....

Taht ginger beer I made where every bottle opens with a POW! didnt bottle bomb. I doubt anything suggest here is going to make the beer closet a walk in Cambodia. And yes. I play hopscotch in Cambodia. As amatter of fact, the reason you have to throw a rock is to check for mines. A lot of people don;t know that.

Triple berry beer that blew aprt an airlock didn;t bottle bomb.

Bottles bombs can happen. But its possible ve probable.

If youere reely worried, do it my way, minus a used party pig, of course. Not so good beer vs loosing a hand. It takes a long time to grow back a hand. And yes. i grew back a hand. Handstand hopscotch. Hardcore.

If you referment, you're at that step again. No worries. cept for cardboard beer. Flat or maybe not so good. Either way is not so good. It worked fine for me. Anecdote.