Big problem! I was bottling and my capper broke! I immediately sanitized the cover and reattached the airlock. Is this batch ruined because it was in te bottling bucket with the priming sugar? Please advise as this beer came out great and I'd hate to lose it. Thanks in advance.
Bottling emergency!
- Thread starter Mosebag
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Mista_Sparkle
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should be ok, get a new capper and get it into bottle though asap or else your going to have flat beer.
annasdadhockey
Well-Known Member
Please explain.
NorCalAngler
Well-Known Member
The yeast are currently eating all the priming sugar and the CO2 is being lost. If he bottles this too late then the yeast won't have enough sugar left to eat in order to carb the beer. I have no idea what that time period is, though.
annasdadhockey
Well-Known Member
why not let them finish eating said priming sugar, reprime, then bottle? It'll give maybe .25% ABV boost, and you know for sure your carb will be OK.
PT Ray
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Can you throw it in a fridge or outside if it's still cold. Even if you can't I wouldn't sweat it. One, I think a lot of people bottle too early which results in a lot of carbonation. Second, if you've waited several weeks to bottle I've found it takes a little bit of time for the yeast to become active and consume the priming sugar.
It's all a matter of timing. The priming sugar was added to the batch, so that restarts a little fermentation that would otherwise be used to carb up the bottles. If left in the bucket for too long there's a chance that most or all of the sugars would be converted and CO2 escaped by the time it was added and capped, so with no sugar left to convert it wouldn't produce the CO2 necessary to carb up the beer.
Whether or not 24 hours is sufficient, I don't know. It's hard to say how fast that corn sugar gets converted, but I don't think waiting one day would be the end of the world and it would probably still have enough sugar left to carb up. But I certainly wouldn't want to test it out and let it go for a few days before bottling.
But to the OP, one thing you can do is move the beer to a cool place to slow or possibly even halt any of that fermentation with the priming sugar. That would be your best bet so it can buy you enough time. Either way, it isn't the end of the world for your beer. If you can bottle it in a reasonable amount of time it should carb up fine. Even if it ended up not carbing up you'd have a beer with slightly higher ABV and you could then uncap and carb the bottles with tabs if need be. So, all is not lost!
Hophazard
Well-Known Member
You can add more priming sugar when you bottle (whether its tomorrow, the next day, etc...). It shouldn't make much, if any, difference in the final product. The yeast will ferment the previously added priming sugar pretty quickly.
annasdadhockey
Well-Known Member
Yea, I know. My point was that all is not lost, that there is no need to worry. That is all.
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
I'm with letting it ferment out and then repriming. I wouldn't want to try to gamble on how much sugar is left when you get a new capper.
Well, you said "please explain", so I did
But I agree, it will be fine. The OP can wait a day and bottle then and it may or may not carb up as expected, which isn't a problem since you could still add something to the bottles individually and recap to carb, or he can not worry about it and let it ferment out and get the ABV boost and then prime again.Lots of options, so I wouldn't be too concerned!
annasdadhockey
Well-Known Member
Well, you said "please explain", so I did
Lots of options, so I wouldn't be too concerned!
Word!!!Lots of options.
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