bottled too soon?

I made the beginner mistake to bottle my Mr. Beer Oktoberfest at 12 days. The anxiety was killing me...but no excuses. I also added a cup of honey to this 2 gal. batch to the wort on brew day. I'm reading now that honey needs 3 weeks to ferment. OK, I will get a sub-par yield even for Mr. Beer, but now I'm afraid of a bottle bomb. I should note that the bottles are corn sugar carbinated. Should I be concerned about a mess? I've learned from my mistake already:cross:

Put all the bottles into a plastic bin and put the cover on it. Put something of decent weight on the lid too. Check on them every few days until a month has passed. Also, when you move a bottle to the fridge to chill (for a week) be careful. You don't want a glass bottle to burst in your hand.

honey does not take 3 weeks to ferment in primary. after 12 days of primary there shouldn't be much fermentable left in there if you pitched enough yeast. chances of bottle bombs is pretty minimal, IMO, but certainly can't hurt to put the bottles in a bag or some other container to minimize the mess should one explode.

Mis-read... Thought the OP had PRIMED 2 gallons with a cup of honey..DOH!!!

IME, honey would have been consumed along with everything else the yeast could go through. Provided the OP actually waited for the brew to stop fermenting before bottling.

Thanks, guys! I can wipe that sweat off my brow.

You're gonna be fine. Before I learned of long fermentations and I was too lazy to go to secondary, I commonly bottled in less than 2 weeks. Not as good as the beer I brew these days, but still drinkable. I wouldn't worry about bottle bombs...that's only a major concern if you have a lot of fermentables left, which is fairly uncommon. (Try brewing soda...THOSE are bottle bombs!)

revco said:

You're gonna be fine. Before I learned of long fermentations and I was too lazy to go to secondary, I commonly bottled in less than 2 weeks. Not as good as the beer I brew these days, but still drinkable. I wouldn't worry about bottle bombs...that's only a major concern if you have a lot of fermentables left, which is fairly uncommon. (Try brewing soda...THOSE are bottle bombs!)

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