Question about bottling!!

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betelgeuse4721

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Heya,

I'm going to bottle my brew Sunday into about 35 St. Pauli Girl bottles that I sanitized. I have a capper and a nice little fill-siphon so I'm not too worried about any of that.

However, I am going to add priming sugar to my batch prior to bottling. I have 3/4 cup corn sugar that I will boil with 2 cups of water and then add to my batch.

***This measurement is for 5 gallons of beer, and I only produced about 4.

Do you think 3/4 cup corn sugar will add too much carbonation and the bottles will explode?
I'm thinking about cutting the corn sugar down to 1/2 cup w/ 1.5 cup water.

ALSO - My beer has fermented 7 days in my glass carboy, and (planning on) 7 in my secondary fermenter. If I bottle on the 14th day, how long should I let the bottles sit and condition before I drink them??

It's a delicious looking and smelling Oktoberfest that will hopefully be ready before Halloween-

I made a little blog showing pictures along the way if your interested.
http://bradysbrew.blogspot.com/

Thanks a bunch.:rockin:
 
if my fractional math is right 3/4 x 4/5 = 12/20=6/10=3/5 of a cup of sugar. if you are a little off on the 3/5 of a cup it won't be a big deal. With 3/4 it will probably be a little over carbonated, but not at the bottle bomb zone.

start sampling after a couple weeks. It probably won't hit its prime until thanksgiving, but might be drinkable when the goblins make their rounds.
 
Use this Calculator to figure out how much priming sugar you need for your volume. The temp is the highest temp your beer was at during fermentation.

Also, I'd recommend waiting before bottling. I leave all my beer in the primary 3+ weeks before bottling, then I take gravity readings, if it stays the same 3 days in a row it's ready to bottle/keg.
 
There are some real cool calculators for this. If you have a phone that runs apps there are two that are good for this... Brewzor Calculator and HomeBrew Calculator (both free).

By the way my 1st batch that I am enjoying NOW, was an Oktoberfest recipe, probably from your LHBS "Hearts". I ended with about 4.3 gallons and did the same 3/4 cup in a pint of water. I forgot to compensate, and alas, I have a good beer on my hands now. I only primaried for 10 days and it is still good! But I would recommend leaving it on the yeast for at least the two weeks, skip the secondary altogether.

Also, if you are in the Oviedo that I know (in Florida), then you should meet with the local homebrew club. I'm planning on joining soon, the meetings are the first Sunday of the month at Rossi's pizza (OBT and Oakridge Ave).
 
extremely helpful, thanks everyone.

djinn - yeah, thats the right oviedo. Im interested to learn more about this brew club. Is it open to everyone? Im 22 and dont want to invade some fancy shmancy connoisseur club - im sure its laid back tho

ps. how much did your oktoberfest cost over at hearts? I bought an ingredient kit on Amazon for about 40 (including shipping) which was kind of expensive. Hearts is a far-ass drive from me but if its good deals over there im goin next time
 
did you say you sanitized 4 days before your going to bottle? you might want to give them another once over just prior to bottling
 
extremely helpful, thanks everyone.

djinn - yeah, thats the right oviedo. Im interested to learn more about this brew club. Is it open to everyone? Im 22 and dont want to invade some fancy shmancy connoisseur club - im sure its laid back tho

ps. how much did your oktoberfest cost over at hearts? I bought an ingredient kit on Amazon for about 40 (including shipping) which was kind of expensive. Hearts is a far-ass drive from me but if its good deals over there im goin next time

I haven't been to any meetings, but have met some of its members at Orlando Brewery (near downtown, in an industrial complex). My friend and I are going to join as soon as we get to a meeting. I'm only 27 BTW, and am a student at UCF, as I assume you might be from your blog.

Hearts is a drive and all, but here is the website (http://www.heartshomebrew.com/home_brew_beer.cgi). They have fair deals IMO, and as you will see, kits are about the same price.[EDIT- $40 for 48+ beers is something like 80cents a beer, so that's good news] The bonus is, you support a "somewhat" local business and can get your stuff the same day! Other than that, I would get stuff from Austin Homebrew Supply if you are set on buying online. Hope to see you around at the next meeting, I'll bring an Oktoberfest or few for tasting.
 
Sounds like you got good advice on the priming sugar here, however what's scaring me is the 7 days in primary and 7 secondary. Do you own a hydrometer??? If so, don't rack to secondary until your gravity is stable, just going by days in the fermenter can be dangerous, if you bottle before fermentation is done, none of your priming sugar calculations will be accurate and you may end up with bottle bombs.

You're on the right track with the advice given here about priming sugar, but make damn sure fermentation is done before you add the priming sugar and bottle, and the only way to do that is with a hydrometer(not counting days).
 
superjunior - I will definitely rinse them once more the day of bottling

djin88 - I am really interested in that club, I'm going to try and get myself together and make it out there to meet some people

dummkauf - I bought a pre-made ingredient kit which tells me to ferment for about 7 days and BOTTLE...I thought this was too short and wanted to let it sit a bit longer.

I will take your advice and take daily hydrometer readings and, when it is stable, I will add the priming sugar and bottle the bad boy up.

Thanks for the advice everybody
 
Stable for 3 straight days. I have yet to bottle anything that has been fermenting for less than 3 weeks. The advice from more experienced brewers on this forum is to primary 3+ weeks since it will help things clear up a bit and will not hurt your beer. Always remember, homebrewing is for procrastinators.
 
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