AHHH!!! Help ASAP, beer in bottling bucket, 10 points too high! What to do?

FUCCCKKK So I was gonna bottle my Bell's K-zoo stout clone today after 23 days in primary. Just transferred it into the bottling bucket and the FG is about 9 points high (1.026-7 when it should be 1.017), and that's not counting the 1/2 cup of corn sugar!! Should I rehydrate & pitch some yeast (I've got US-05, S-04, and Nottingham in the fridge) or go ahead and bottle? I was using harvested Bell's yeast from 3 bottles of their Pale Ale. I stepped up the started a couple times and it seemed pretty healthy (lots of yeast sediment, decent krausen) but the main fermentation seemed kinda slow.



To make things worse, I also forgot to take an OG reading when I brewed it back on the 9th, but it should've been around 1.063.

If you forgot the OG reading, you really don't know what the FG should be. I would put my bets on going ahead and bottling. Now, if you know the FG hasn't changed in a few days, that means definitely bottle. Otherwise odds are on it being done and ready to go.

pinkfloyd4ever said:

why didn't I take a gravity reading before racking onto the priming solution?

Click to expand...

Not exactly sure how the priming sugar affects gravity but it will certainly raise it. Maybe this is the answer...

mattmcl said:

If you forgot the OG reading, you really don't know what the FG should be. I would put my bets on going ahead and bottling. Now, if you know the FG hasn't changed in a few days, that means definitely bottle. Otherwise odds are on it being done and ready to go.

Click to expand...

FG means NOTHING without OG!

Obviously since you didnt realize what your FG was, you did not take readings several days in a row to see if it had stabilized, so there's no real way to tell if it's finished.

If it's already in the bucket with priming solution, I'd probably bottle it. After 23 days in primary my money is on ITS DONE. You might want to put the cases of bottles in a spare bathtub while they carb up and be sure to wear your bomb squad gear when you go to test one though, just in case.

dpittard said:

Not exactly sure how the priming sugar affects gravity but it will certainly raise it. Maybe this is the answer...

Click to expand...

noo nooo my gravity reading that's 9-10 points high was from the siphon, i.e. without the priming solution mixed in

Bottle it FTW!!

I'm betting it turns out great.

leave it in the bottling bucket and pitch a pack of yeast. The sugar you added should help the yeast get those last 10 points off. After the FG stabilizes, prime and bottle it. You don't want to bottle ten points high unless you're going to keep the bottles in a sealed explosion proof container and drink them as soon as they carb.

pinkfloyd4ever said:

noo nooo my gravity reading that's 9-10 points high was from the siphon, i.e. without the priming solution mixed in

Click to expand...

FUUUCKK why didn't I take a gravity reading before racking onto the priming solution?

Click to expand...

Which one is it? That will make a difference. Also we need to figure out your OG as well. What is the recipe? We should be able to determine the OG from that.

Whoa man, sounds like you definitely need to RDWHAHB!

Newbeerguy said:

Which one is it? That will make a difference. Also we need to figure out your OG as well. What is the recipe? We should be able to determine the OG from that.

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/bells-kalamazoo-stout-98847/index3.html#post2576827

OG should've been 1.063. That's what the Bell's site says and K-zoo stout is 6.0% abv so doing the math, FG should be 1.017 I believe. I took the gravity sample from the outlet of the siphon, as I was siphoning into the bottling bucket (which already had the priming solution in it). The gravity I measured as 1.026-7 was the beer without the priming solution.

Was it all grain or extract? You could have overshot your OG pretty easily. Recipe says 1.063 but its possible your actual OG was 1.070 or higher. I've overshot my last two batches in the mash and had to add water to the boil after refractometer readings, so it's highly possible.

It was all-grain. I calculate my recipes to have 6 gallons post-boil (pre-chill), before racking off the sediment thru the CFC. Ughhh, I need a refractometer.

Man, i'd for sure count this as lesson learned on taking gravity readings.

Get yourself a refractometer and use it pre-boil, half way through the boil, and post boil to help you nail your OG on the nose. If you know those three readings, you can add DME or Water to the boil to adjust for variances in your mash efficiency.

strat_thru_marshall said:

Man, i'd for sure count this as lesson learned on taking gravity readings.

Click to expand...

ohh yess definitely. I totally didn't intend not to take it, but on brew day I had a couple guys helping me finish up who had to leave and I was rushing so that they could get out of there.

strat_thru_marshall said:

Get yourself a refractometer and use it pre-boil, half way through the boil, and post boil to help you nail your OG on the nose. If you know those three readings, you can add DME or Water to the boil to adjust for variances in your mash efficiency.

Click to expand...

Yeah, a refractometer is definitely gonna be my next brewing equipment purchase, definitely before the next brew day.

If you were gonna rehydrate & pitch some yeast, which would you use? US-05, S-04, or Nottingham?

Since you added some sugar to boost the OG, I would expect the FG to be a tad higher too. In other words it's not a huge problem. If it's stable, go ahead and bottle it.

NRS

If OG was supposed to be 1.063, at 75% attenuation, FG should be 1.015.

If OG was actually 1.070; FG (at same attenuation) would be ~ 1.017.

Likewise, if OG was actually 1.056, then FG would be ~ 1.014.

In other words, OG is not as critical to FG as some of you are making out. He is still WAY off.

I'd just throw in some neutral, alcohol tolerant, yeast and hope it drops a few more points. Bottling at 1.027 is asking for bottle bombs.




ETA: 4 oz of priming sugar in 5 gallons of beer adds 2.3 gravity points. [(1.046 * 0.25)/5 = 46/4/5 = 2.3]

ETA2: For an FG of 1.027, with an attenuation of 70%, OG would have had to be around 1.090. Not likely if expected OG was 1.063.

NorthRiverS said:

Since you added some sugar to boost the OG, I would expect the FG to be a tad higher too. In other words it's not a huge problem. If it's stable, go ahead and bottle it.

NRS

Click to expand...

I didn't add sugar to boost the OG. The sugar didn't come into the picture until I racked onto the priming solution, and like I said before, the reading that was 9-10 pts high was the beer straight from the fermenter, without the priming solution in it.

BioBeing said:

He is still WAY off.

I'd just throw in some neutral, alcohol tolerant, yeast and hope it drops a few more points. Bottling at 1.027 is asking for bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

right, that was my concern. I ended up rehydrating and pitching a packet of Nottingham. I'll definitely make sure to check the gravity for a couple days before trying to bottle this time. Lesson learned.

From someone who's had a 'stable gravity for 2 weeks' that was '10 points too high' and 'bottled anyway'...

DON'T BOTTLE IT YET!

I lost two cases of stout that sat at 1.025 for two weeks. After a month in the bottle they started going off like grenades in my closet.

Total waste of 5 gallons. Stable doesn't mean done. It means 'stable'. Stable "at or near final gravity estimate" is what we need people.

neutral flavor, alcohol-tolerant yeast = Champagne yeast. Keep some for just this event.

If its not too late, toss a packet into your bottling bucket, cover, wait another 2 weeks, check the gravity...

It sounds to me like your mash was running hot, probably by a few degrees and therefore it's probably as low as it's going to go.

Hang Glider said:

neutral flavor, alcohol-tolerant yeast = Champagne yeast. Keep some for just this event.

If its not too late, toss a packet into your bottling bucket, cover, wait another 2 weeks, check the gravity...

Click to expand...

hmm, I already pitched a packet of Nottingham, but I'll get some champagne yeast for possible future f-ups. It won't make it too dry, like unbeerlike dry, will it?

Bobby_M said:

It sounds to me like your mash was running hot, probably by a few degrees and therefore it's probably as low as it's going to go.

Click to expand...

funny you say that (or maybe not cause you really know your stuff). My target mash temp was 154. It was 156 at the beginning, so I left the fly sparge hole open and it had dropped to 152 by the end of the mash. Would that average out to being roughly equivalent to conversion at 154 the whole time, or not really?

Also I really don't trust the thermometer I've been using. Got a new one (NIST certified, baby!) for the next brew. At room temps the old one is like 6-8 degrees different from the new NIST certified one.

pinkfloyd4ever said:

Also I really don't trust the thermometer I've been using. Got a new one (NIST certified, baby!) for the next brew. At least at room temps the old one is life 6-8 degrees different from the new NIST certified one.

Click to expand...

temp off which way?

Because if your mash were really sitting at 162, then yes - that could certainly be the culprit - leaving behind long sugar chains the yeast can't handle, with a resulting high gravity reading.

Right, I think the difference between 152 and 156 on that thermo is completely irrelevant if the real temp was between 158-162. If the mash was around 160, I don't expect you to get more than another point or two of fermentation regardless of the yeast. How does it taste? Too sweet?