Loss of priming sugar through %&*^$# valve

I went to bottle my Rye P.A. the other day, boiled and cooled the priming sugar, poured it in the pail, started to rack the beer on top of it, and then noticed the unmistakable stream of beer and priming sugar streaming out of the &^^%^%$ valve at the bottom of the pail that I left open. Since I had no way to determine how much of my leak was sugar, and had no more priming sugar even if I wanted to add some, I went ahead and bottled my beer anyway.

The total loss was probably less than one cup, and hopefully only 1/2 of it was priming sugar. Am I likely to end up with little carbonation? or worse yet no carbs? Should I be able to drop half of a sugar tablet of in each bottle and re-cap? My concern is that I don't know how much sugar to use, since I don't know how much I lost.

RDWHAHB, a cupful of lost beer/priming sugar mix shouldn't be a big issue. Only time will tell.

I would leave it. You run the risk of exploding bottles if you put too much sugar in them. If you lost less than a cup of liquid (good catch btw) you probably didn't lose too much priming sugar. Now the key is to not drive yourself crazy trying a bottle every four days to see how it's carbing... Give it the full three weeks!

You could crack one open and tase it or you could measure specific gravity. Both will gve you some indication of sugar available to ferment.

EDIT: but I agree, wait and see. If need be you can always try to add a bit more if they fail to carb. I've acally done much the same without ill effect to the beer.

The sugar solution wouldn't be enough to reach the spigot by itself. So I bet what you lost was actually just about all beer since the sugar water hadn't had time to really mix well with the entering beer.

A real man (or woman) would have tasted the spillage to determine the damage!

dantose said:

A real man (or woman) would have tasted the spillage to determine the damage!

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OK tough guy, I will call you over next time I need some flavor feedback off the floor at my house. Keeping in mind that I have four young children and a dog with athlete's foot that enjoys scratching her ass on the cool tile!

Mmmmm... cool tile, feels so good on the side of the face, and is your freind when house spins

HillbillyDeluxe said:

Mmmmm... cool tile, feels so good on the side of the face, and is your freind when house spins

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Just make sure you grab on to the table leg to stop those spins.

After one week of bottle conditioning I had absolutely no carbonation, I will not check another one until the 2 week mark. But now after 10 days I have noticed alot of the dry-hop particles still suspended throughout the bottle, I was wondering if normal carbonation would drop these particals faster, and this would be an indication carbonation is not occuring right now? It seems like prior batches of similar brew have dropped the particles sooner.

Step back and put down the beer.

I've noticed that my beers typically take 3 weeks to fully carb. My first beer I tested one much like you, at 1 and 2 weeks. Since then I don't even look at them until the 3 week mark and sometimes longer.

Just walk away. Put them in a dark closet and dont even look at them for 3 more weeks. THEN..put one in the fridge over night and drink it the next day. It will be fine. If not, then well talk. I'm guessing we wont have to have that talk.

I agree with bug eater and apollo. Let it ride at least 3 weeks and punish yourself with bmc for your piss poor planning. Its what i do.

Update... after three weeks in the bottles I have about 3/4 the carbonation I would expect from the full amount of priming sugar used, so I probably lost about 1/4 of the priming sugar through the valve. Learn and live I guess, have to keep an eye on that ^%$** valve in the future!

Oh, the ^%$** valve. The original post had the &^^%^%$ valve, and that confused me. Makes sense now. Good luck on the brew.

3/4 of the carbonation, sure, but how does it taste?

beerkrump said:

Oh, the ^%$** valve. The original post had the &^^%^%$ valve, and that confused me. Makes sense now. Good luck on the brew.

3/4 of the carbonation, sure, but how does it taste?

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Taste is good, still needs some conditioning, a little green but will get better.

It'll carb up a little more, I betcha.

Well?...Did it? Did it finally fully carb? I just had this exact same thing happen to me today while bottling, and I lost almost the exact same amount.

I need to know if your beer was okay!!

This is why for any bottling I do, I'm going to use table sugar. No way it can not dissolve fully in boiling water.

Just a little update here: My beer has been in the bottle for about a month now, and it's still seems to be only about 75% carbonated.

I've rolled the bottles twice, once at the one week point and once at the two week point. I'm wondering if there's any point in doing it again. Because of the accident, I just don't know if there's any sugar left for the yeast to eat.

I may just box these up and put them in the back of the beer closet for about a year.