First Brew - Scared of Busting Bottles

I've been trying to figure out as much as I gain before my first set of ingredients comes in the mail.

I think I've got everything covered but the one thing that bothers me is the thought of all the hard work exploding all over my basement floor.

From what I've read I *should* be checking the wort's starting gravity and then under normal situations checking that it gets to it's expected gravity.

The problem is my first brew is going to be a Gluten-Free beer (which means it's probably going to be horrible the first time around), but also means I don't have a source to find out what my expected ending gravity is.

I'll be brewing 6 pounds of Briess 45 DE White Sorghum Extract to make 5 gallons, adding some toasted, cracked, unmalted sorghum grain (as I can't find malted sorghum and I've read this is better than nothing).


So basically what it comes down to is - What is the safest way to make sure my bottles aren't going to explode either from pulling the wort before it's done or adding too much priming sugar?

Have you done a search for this? Someone must have experience with gluten free brews. If that doesn't work I would think that just making sure it has plenty of time to ferment out will ensure freedom from bottle bombs. (And someone is going to suggest kegging)

I don't know what the expected FG would be- but I can tell you that if it's stable (not getting lower) for a period of time, it would be done. If you let it ferment out fully, and get a reasonable FG that doesn't change, then you won't have any bottle bombs.

Relax the only times people get bottle bombs (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT IT'S GLUTEN FREE) is when they bottle too soon...you know what the answer is...Use your hydrometer!!! If you let the beer sit for several weeks (at least two, but many of us primary for a month) and the gravity is the same for 3 days then you really have no fear.

Read this http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

Bottle Bombs are a rarity....especially if you brew smartly.

Follow your recipe, make sure you use the right amount of priming sugar (which will say so on your recipe, complete with the target gravity) Don't prime them individually, but make up priming solution and add it to a bottling bucket and relax (priming individual bottles is where the risk really came from)...

People have been brewing beer and bottling them in glass bottles since the 1800's. If bottle bombs were such a risk to the diligent brewer, not the impatient one, then there wouldn't be bottling instructions in every beginner beer book on the planet.

Your recipe will have a starting gravity and a final gravity regardless of the ingredients...so follow an established recipe and you will be fine...there's plenty of threads on Gluten Free Brewing on here, I even linked in one of them two great podcasts that cover it...

And read this as well, there's some great tips to make bottling easier...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

I think one pitfall of ready these types of boards frequently is that it tends to overemphasize problems that "may" happen. We don't generally post comments like "Batch #9 and still no bottle bombs" or "I don't think this batch is infected". As Revvy said, people have been doing this for quite sometime.

Don't take this to mean that you can be complacent. That is when things go bad. If you follow the correct process, be patient, you will be fine.

PS- I did 35 gallons last year and not one single bomb in the bunch.

GrumpyJed said:

I think one pitfall of ready these types of boards frequently is that it tends to overemphasize problems that "may" happen. We don't generally post comments like "Batch #9 and still no bottle bombs" or "I don't think this batch is infected". As Revvy said, people have been doing this for quite sometime.

Don't take this to mean that you can be complacent. That is when things go bad. If you follow the correct process, be patient, you will be fine.

PS- I did 35 gallons last year and not one single bomb in the bunch.

Click to expand...

Good answer....

Oh I don't know how many gallons I brewed last year and I actually got a bottle bomb...it was one of my long term storage bottles (I pull a few from every decent ones I brew and hold them until contest season and see if they are worth entering)...the cupboard got a little warm and a bottle that must have had a flaw, blew...and guess what? The world didn't end, we're still here, and brewing away.

One bottle out of hundreds...So what...

It's kinda like getting your first new car, you are hyper paranoid about it, parking it away from other cars, in the shade, yadda yadda yadda, UNTIL you get your first scratch...then all that worry fades, and even seems a little ridiculous...

Wait a week after you see the last bubble in your fermentation trap and then bottle using 3/4 to 1 cup of corn sugar to prime a five gallon batch. I've been brewing for three years and have never had a bottle blow and I rarely check the specific gravity of my beers. Brewing is a very forgiving hobby, most everything you make will be successful in that it will look and taste like beer.

Tom

Thanks for the replies. I'm a little on edge since everything I've read suggests gluten free is harder to get right. I'm also flying a little blind since I can't follow the recipes I've found due to lack of ingredients that I'm not willing to wait another week of shipping for.

I was thinking that each ingredient would affect but amount of priming sugar needed, but I'm starting to get the impression that it's the volume that affects the amount of priming sugar.

Oh so NOW we know the truth...

Gluten said:

I'm also flying a little blind since I can't follow the recipes I've found due to lack of ingredients that I'm not willing to wait another week of shipping for.

Click to expand...

Okay...RIGHT HERE, your impatience to wait for the proper ingredients WILL cause the potential for bottle bombs...If you follow a set recipe you will have your target gravities to shoot for so you will KNOW if you are safe for ...if you cobble stuff together willy nilly (especially since your brewing experience is exactly NONEXISTANT) you put yourself right out of what I mentioned here...

Bottle Bombs are a rarity....especially if you brew smartly.

Click to expand...

You're worried about bottle bombs but your noobish impatience is going to have you playing Russian Roulette with that which you absolutely fear the most...not to mention possibly one crappy batch of beer.



If you read the advice for new brewers on here, you will see over and over those of us with more experience recommending that for your first few brews that you use fixed kits or ESTABLISHED recipes, and not mess around with experimentation, until you actually understand what's going on by following a set recipe you have about a 99% chance of success in your endeavors...if you start messing around (especially with something that you just said is DIFFICULT) you'll have more to worry about than just bottle bombs...

Knowing most noobs on here you've prolly made up your mind to F around rather than wait, so I'm probably speaking to a brick wall here, but if you really wanted to do yourself a favor as a brewer, and have a better chance of success, hold off a week, order the right ingredients and brew an established recipe AS IS, and you won't HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT STUFF LIKE THIS...


If you had shared THAT little Gem about being too impatient to do it right, we prolly wouldn't have wasted our time trying to calm your nerves...

I actually posted here in hopes of finding out things that I don't know.

You've given me things I need to consider, and I fully plan taking any advice as fast as I can absorb the information. I listened to the podcast you mentioned just now, and found it fascinating. Unfortunately I'm fluttering through the links they mentioned and am unable to find an actual recipe that is gluten free from them.

I may have landed upon a recipe that I can follow from another source.

6 lb. 11 oz. (3.0 kg) BriesSweet White Sorghum Syrup 45 DE High Maltose
0.50 lbs. (0.23 kg) honey
6 AAU Tettnang hops (60 mins)
(1.5 oz./43 g of 4% alpha acids)
Danstar Nottingham dried ale yeast
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

But I'd really like to find something that isn't made purely from extract.


It's funny really, you mention threads that can help, and as I'm trying to find this buried information you come back with an insulting tone because I'm unaware that I'm unaware of something?

I'm flying blind because I'm having trouble finding resources, not because I want to pretend if I know exactly what I'm doing.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate all the advice. If I'm doing something wrong I'd love to know before I make the mistake, but there's no need to go banshee on me.

That's just rude

If you read the advice for new brewers on here, you will see over and over those of us with more experience recommending that for your first few brews that you use fixed kits or ESTABLISHED recipes

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I have to avoid these completely. Anything containing gluten is not allowed in the house. The risk of cross-contamination is just too high, especially considering an hour long boil of ingredients containing gluten.

Please don't get frustrated Gluten!

I'm sure you have enough of that just trying to find gluten free products. Unfortunately, there are lots of folks that don't understand how hard it is and I know that Revvy was trying to help you, not insult you. I've been developing a gluten free line for a restaurant chain so I get the difficulties. I'm sorry to say that I don't know much (yet) about brewing gluten free beer and hardly anyone else does either.

Nurmey:

Thanks for the support. I'm trying to find the dividing line between gathering information from reading and gathering information by trying.

I got my extract in the mail the other day and am currently waiting on the grains to arrive. After that I'm headed to a local brew shop for the first time for advice on hops and anything else I can get out of them. I'm pretty excited about the whole venture.

I found an article that suggested toasting unmalted sorghum grain in lieu of malted sorghum which seems non-existent in non-extract form. This is what I'd like to try but the article mentioned nothing of priming sugar and I'm trying to find out how ingredients affect each other.

My main concern was not actually coming out with a tasty product (I doubt I'll be able to do that for a long time) but with not destroying equipment on my first run.

You said you were flying blind because you were too impatient to wait to order the right ingredients....I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just giving you some answers that you may not want to hear.

I want you to succeed as a brewer from your very first batch, that's why I took the time to answer your questions and even to confront you in your last post.

We see stuff like this everyday from excited new brewers...They want to experiment, they don't want to wait. And then they come back with an "is my beer ruined thread."

And we try to help them...when really if they had listened the first time they never would have gotten into that mess to begin with.

Once upon a time a brewer posted an is my beer ruined thread for hos first batch of beer...We spent DAYS, tearing apart his process, his ingredients, his horoscope for chrissakes, trying to figure out what went wrong his batch.

THEN he comes back and mentioned that he was reading a thread about the oliveoil method of aeration (it's a complex and really theroetical discussion, basically it uses an amount of oil that cannot be measure for a 5 gallon batch..it's that tiny)

Because he didn't understand ANYTHING about brewing yet, he deduced that if 1 drop worked in wort, then 3 tablespoons must of course work better!!!!


So a whole thread goes by and you don't tell us that you really are impatient to order the right ingredients, and that's why you are worried about bombs...It feels like we're wasting our time...

You wanna make a gluten free beer that is free of bottle bombs, and taste good? Then find a recipe...sorry if there aren't alot on here, it's a new field for many of us...but don't fly blind.

If you do find a gluten free recipe that has been brewed (have you not found any on here? I swear that there are a couple here.)

Then order the ingredients, wait for them to come, and brew it...Then you won't have to worry about anything.

There's a bunch of recipes on this thread and links to more recipes...I found the thread by searching for gluten free...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gluten-free-recipe-suggestions-85125/#post985619

And here's more recipes from the one of the links in there...http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/brewerytap/555/gfbeer/recipes.htm

I should have been more clear on my first post.

All I really want to know is if changing the ratio of extract to grain, or even adding grain where none is called for changes the amount of priming sugar needed.

Also, why?

I'd really like to understand how things work on top of following the instructions. I'm not saying I'm gonna go rogue on my first brew. I just want information.

Also, thanks for the links. The fortunecity link was one of the first articles I read and it helped a lot because it gave me questions to ask and answers to seek.

How priming sugar is determined is a hole in my understanding of brewing.

I'm gonna check out the first link now.

edit:
I found a link with a complicated solution to my question
http://brewery.org/library/YPrimerMH.html
and a simple explanation
http://www.beertools.com/html/tutorial/phase03/step02.shtml

I probably should have been able to find it myself but I wasn't asking the question right.

I found a link that I've been thinking about while reading this thread. I don't know if you read it but it give some great links for GF beer making.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/im-malting-away-gluten-free-sorghum-30036/

edit: Priming sugar is a minor ingredient and shouldn't change anything you do. One ounce per gallon of beer is what it takes to carbonate.

When I first started to home brew I bought two 12 gallon flip top containers from home depot just in case over priming would occur. They hold a case of beer perfectly and if they were to blow the spillage is contained.

Gluten,

When all else fails, say this to yourself-Relax. Don't Worry. Have a Home Brew. If you don't have any home brew available, have one of your favorite commercial beers.

As far as bottle bombs, if you are really worried about it, go buy a plastic tote from your favorite department store, use a hole saw to cut a couple of vent holes high on each side of the tote, then put the top on. If the bottles start exploding, all of the mess will be contained and you won't have to clean up broken glass and beer on your ceiling.

I'm not sure about gluten free beers, but since most of the fermentable sugars SHOULD still be out of the brew by the time you bottle(If you're worried, move it to secondary to a few weeks before bottling.), all the yeasties will be working on is the priming sugar that you add.

You could also go a little lite on the priming sugar. You're beer wouldn't be as carbonated, but you also could be sure of not over priming.

i am kinda worried about bottle bombs on my last batch, it was a brewers best weizenbier kit that i added blueberry flavoring to to make a blueberry wheat, the gravity did not drop for over 3 days so i felt fine bottling it, and my LHBS told me to cut back about an oz on the priming sugar, but then i added the priming sugar and the blueberry flavoring(2oz) and didnt think it had enough blueberry flavor, so i added the rest of the bottle(another 2oz) and was wondering if this would cause bottle bombs? i used 4oz priming sugar and 4oz liquid blueberry flavoring

I might be wrong here, but I don't think flavor extract adds anything but flavoring so it wouldn't increase your chances of bottles bombs. However, I'll bet that's gonna be some strong fruit-flavored brew.

Does the bottle list how much sugar is in the flavoring? That would be a good indication. My guess is that it does not have much sugar.

the bottle does not say all it says is "4 oz, use 2oz per 5 gal" and the bottle doesnt say anything about cutting back the priming sugar but i asked the LHBS owner and he says i should cut back an oz so i cut back an oz but then used 2x the flavoring

I just checked on Beer Making and Home Brewing Supplies | MoreBeer, and the stuff that they sell contains NO sugar at all. It's probably something similar to what you have.

thats different stuff, mine was a clear liquid in a bottle that was kinda rounded on top, it was made by LD Carlson

Man, I did a bunch of searches, and LD Carlson really does not want to give out the stuff that they put into their flavorings.

I stand by what I said above. It's probably similar to what you used. Even if it looks different.

I could be wrong about your particular one but almost all of those flavorings are meant only to back flavor the beer and contain no fermentables at all. In that case they would no effect on carbing. (It should have an effect on how long the beer lasts though because most people can only stand to drink one with that much flavoring. Just kidding!)

To the OP,

You keep coming back to the question of amount of priming sugar to use.

To answer your question to some degree, your recipe should have little to no bearing on the behaviour of the priming sugar and the carbing of the beer. Your recipe will call for a specific amount of priming sugar. Use that amount. It does not matter if you change the recipe because a properly fermented beer will have no more femrentables to ferment while it is in the bottle.

The only time a recipe would effect priming is if the recipe completely uses up the yeasts ability to ferment, i.e. very very high in alcohol or aged in fermenter for 12 months. In other words, never for any standard recipe that you are going to be doing early in your brewing career.

How priming sugar is determined is a hole in my understanding of brewing.

Click to expand...

So to clarify you simply are looking for the formula used to determine priming sugar amounts based upon the recepie?

I'm not sure but 3/4 cup seems standard, but then again I just use the amount stated in recipie, weather that was determined from trial and error, experience or a formula I never know, but the beer is good.