HELP! priming sugar accidentally added to secondary fermentation

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E-rock

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Hello all,

This is my first brewing experience. I am a victim of my own stupidity. I need help. I am making an autumn ale, and followed the directions perfectly all the way to primary fermentation. Primary fermentation was in my 7 gallon ale pail, and i kept it there for 12 days. I then transferred to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. I added priming sugar to the glass carboy (because i didn't read directions) and only after adding did i realize I was supposed to wait until bottling to add the priming sugar. Now the carboy is actively fermenting again and the beer smells sweet (not a good sweet smell). My question is this: I am leaving on a work trip for 2 weeks. I need to bottle today or wait two weeks to bottle. The carboy is actively fermenting because i added the priming sugar. What should I do? Should i wait two weeks to let it condition, then proceed with the directions with new priming sugar? Can I bottle now? Please help me somehow salvage this rookie mistake I made.
 
I'd say let it finish,then prime & bottle. It will probably be a bit lighter,but can't be helped. It should still be good,though.
 
I don't think bottling now would be a good idea at all. The bubbling means that it's doing what it's supposed to do in the bottles, it's just not in the bottles. I would let it sit at least two weeks, then add the priming sugar (again) in the bottling bucket and bottle away.

As far as the sweet smell, just let the yeast do its work and wait. Best advice I've ever gotten on brewing; when in doubt, wait it out.
 
yea, wait it out until your yeasties are done eating all the treats you gave them.

when the time comes to bottle, just go to your lhbs and buy some more priming sugar and prime as normal. you'll be fine.
 
the alcohol will increase but were talking fractions of a percent. what did you prime with? like 130g of dextrose in 5gal? that's nothing. Dont even worry about it. if you have the exact numbers i can do a quick calc for you.

Worst case scenario, you may have got your yeast active again, and it attenuated a bit further, but i bet you anything this will be the best beer you ever had. Let it ferment out and steady over the next few days then come home and bottle with new priming sugar.
 
I'd probably leave it alone for 3 more weeks...then prime and bottle. Should be great.

A long time ago I began taping my brew sheet in front of me wherever and or whatever the beer was in. This stopped some of my more foolish moves....
 
I'd probably leave it alone for 3 more weeks...then prime and bottle. Should be great.

A long time ago I began taping my brew sheet in front of me wherever and or whatever the beer was in. This stopped some of my more foolish moves....

3 weeks seems excessive... not that it would hurt the beer, but the OP said he/she will be back in what, 2 weeks? I think that's PLENTY of time for the yeast to clean up after munching on a teensy bit of priming sugar.

As far as ABV, the sugar itself should increase the ABV by like maybe 0.1%, and it's possible it will stimulate the yeast to chow down on some of the tougher fermentables left in the beer... but it's still not going to be more than a couple tenths of a percent at the very most.

My advice would be, if you are concerned about accidentally getting too drunk from the extra alcohol, for every 20-40 beers you drink in a session, skip one. Then it should be the same ;)
 
Thanks for making this mistake and to everyone giving great answers. I'm a new brewer and just did the exact same thing. I was stressing at first, but now I'll sleep easy tonight.

I'll just have to drink mass produced beer for an extra couple weeks.
 
So I had everything ready to go for secondary fermenting and I accidentally added the priming sugar instead of the gelatin. The kit came with a 2.5 ounce bag of priming sugar. Since it is such a small amount, how long will it take to ferment again. I am hoping not too long since it was such a small amount. Thanks guys!!!
 
Welcome to the forum. This thread is actually over a year old! To answer your question I'd give it at least another few days. what size batch are you doing? that will make a big difference.

Cheers
 
Thanks. I pulled up this thread because I have seen on other forums people get mad aand say look it up in an older thread, so I just went to and older thread. Anyway it is 5 gallons.
 
Noob who knows nothing but follows his own logical train of thought:

"Hmmm, a few weeks ago I started a thread about some beer I had that after two and a half weeks simply hadn't carbonated probably due to the plastic bottles not having proper seals. I was told to simple re-prime them and re-bottle them.

"From the responses I concluded that you can re-prime and re-bottle beer weeks after a first bottling.

"Ergo, this guy can re-prime and bottle his batch weeks after his 'rookie mistake'. I mean, if my double bottling was okay (I still have yet to taste it though) then this guys mistake isn't really doing anything different (we both primed it for no effective purpose.)

"So it's got to be okay, right? Yeah I think so. Well, it's bubbling now and he'll have to sit that out and add an extra week or two to the process. Right? Yeah, I think so."
 
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