Bottling Concern

Hey there everyone. I had a bit of a concern when bottling my beer last night. I've always measured out the priming sugar for each bottle, but like most people, I found this to be quite tedious and time consuming. So, I went out and bought a bottling bucket, a spigot (which attaches about an inch off the bottom of the bucket), and about a foot of tubing to attach to the spigot and the bottling arm. When it came time to bottle, I heated up a cup of water and added 5 oz of corn sugar. I then brought the mixture to a slow boil for 5 minutes, took it off the heat, covered it and let it cool. Now, I read that a lot of people pour the sugar mixture into the bottling bucket first and then rack the beer on top of the mixture. This is supposed to help the sugar mixture evenly distribute throughout the beer. Ok, so far so good. I started bottling, and about at the halfway point I decided to sample the beer. Well, it tasted like beer with some sugar mixed in with it, which seemed normal to me. After getting to the point where the beer was below the hole of the spigot, I started tilting the bottling bucket to allow ALL of the beer to be bottled. I ended with about a wine glass full of beer at the bottom of the bucket and decided to pour it into, well, a wine glass. I tasted it, and it was much sweeter then the first sample that I had. My concern is that the sugar mixture was NOT evenly distributed throughout the beer, and now I will be left with some flat beer and some over-carbonated beer. Is this correct, or is it normal for more sugar to settle at the bottom of the bottling bucket. Like I said, I could taste the sugar in the first sample, but it was subtle, which seemed normal. Should I have not tilted the bottling bucket, and should have just discarded the remaining beer at the bottom? Thanks in advance for your help! :rockin:

It will be fine there's plenty of sugar in your bottles, and will integrate fine and dandy in your bottles. You just have noob nerves. It's pretty fool proof.

Just make sure your bottles are in a nice warm place above 70 degrees, and come back to them in three weeks.

In the meantime read this thread of tips and tricks to make your bottling easier. ANd you'll find your next batch will even besmoother.

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

Thanks man, I do have some noob nerves, and the OCD doesn't help either. Thank God for this forum.

I posted a similar question and was glad to see your concerns.

My problem was a bit different. It's been 5 weeks since I've bottled and only 1 out every 4-5 bottles I open are good. The others are flat. Everyone here came to the conclusion that it was either a poor mixing of the primiing sugar or leaky caps.

To me the capping seemed like a pretty straight up thing and to think I capped that many bottle incorrectly seems a little out of the ordinary to me, but I suppose it could happen.

My next batch I will try to make sure the priming sugars mix well (without adding any air to it) and hopefully this will solve the problem.

dae06 said:

I posted a similar question and was glad to see your concerns.

My problem was a bit different. It's been 5 weeks since I've bottled and only 1 out every 4-5 bottles I open are good. The others are flat. Everyone here came to the conclusion that it was either a poor mixing of the primiing sugar or leaky caps.

To me the capping seemed like a pretty straight up thing and to think I capped that many bottle incorrectly seems a little out of the ordinary to me, but I suppose it could happen.

My next batch I will try to make sure the priming sugars mix well (without adding any air to it) and hopefully this will solve the problem.

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Honestly the idea that the sugar won't integrate with the beer is really a myth...it mixes itself just fine. And very rarely do beers just not carb up.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Make sure they are above 70, give them a light shake to get the yeast back up in suspension and give them more time.

Just for my sanity's sake, when I bottle I always sanitize a spoon and stir the beer carefully to make certain it's mixed up. I took the advice of just letting it swirl the first few batches & had inconsistent carbonation. After I started stirring that problem went away. YMMV

I found a smattering of bottles overcarbed when I just let the racking mix the sugar in. I now gently mix halfway through and have not had random foamy beers.

hamiltont said:

Just for my sanity's sake, when I bottle I always sanitize a spoon and stir the beer carefully to make certain it's mixed up. I took the advice of just letting it swirl the first few batches & had inconsistent carbonation. After I started stirring that problem went away. YMMV

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You run the risk of bringing in too much air if you use a spoon. If you are not careful you can oxydize your beer that way.

I wrote this up for someone else, I call it the overkill method of bottling. But it works.

One thing to do on your next batch of beer...try all these things and see if you have improvement.

1) Let sugar cool a bit (not that I think it matters, but for the sake of trying it differently)

2) Pour half in bottom of bucket.

3) make sure racking hose is in bottom of bucket in such a way that it is "hugging" the curved sides of the bucket so that the beer will flow out in a spiralling motion to swirl the beer and priming solution, and mix it together on it's own. (Do this instead of using a spoon)

4)Just as you start your racking over, scrape the bottom of your autospihon/racking cane along the bottom of your fermenter/secondary (one stroke back and forth is enough) to kick up some yeast and transfer it over. I usually do it for about a minute, then lift the autosiphon up above til it runs clear again, and lover it back into the bottom, it will cloud for a few seconds then a runnel will be formed and it will run clear again.

5)When you get to 2.5 gallons add the remaining priming solution to the bucket.

6)Bottle as normal, but make sure you crimp really tightly (even dimple it if you want, this way you rule out anything about not tight enough camps.)

7)Make sure they are in a place that is ALWAYS above 70, not vasiliating into the 60's. If it does ever go below 70 in your space wrap a blanket or a sleeping bags around the boxes.

8)Riddle the bottles on the 7th and 14th days (upend them once to re-suspend the yeast/ trub)

9) Don't bother opening any of them til it's been 4 weeks for a 10.60 and below Og, and 6 weeks for anything up to 10.80 Anythig over 1.080 wait 8 weeks.

And see what happens....this is probably OVERKILL...but it should nearly gaurentee that none of those reasons you all THINK cause it are happening in your batches.

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I think Revvy's overkill process is the process I'll follow next time. I've brewed two beers now and the carbonation of both sucked. Both beers were American Pale Ale (1.056 og/1.014 fg) and out of 10 gallons of beer, maybe 12 bottles were properly carbed. As I drank through these cases I'd get a bunch of bottles that were flat, or had barely any carb, followed by a single bottle that was properly carbed if I was lucky. I used 4 oz of corn sugar in each one boiled and cooled with 1 cup of water, and racked the beer and sugar water mixture into the bottling bucket with the hose output swirling the beer along the curve of the bucket.

I've been pretty unhappy with the results. For all of these bottles I kept them for 3 weeks on top of my kitchen cabinets, next to a thermometer that read 72 degrees.

I'm aiming for the overkill method on the batch that is currently fermenting.

Fishin-Jay said:

I'm aiming for the overkill method on the batch that is currently fermenting.

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I'm with you in this one.

So I'm guessing that's it's pretty important for the tube opening that's in the bottling bucket to stay at the bottom along the side when you're racking from the fermentor to the bottling bucket? Because I couldn't keep the hose at the bottom of the bucket, it kept floating up along the top.

CoryJM said:

So I'm guessing that's it's pretty important for the tube opening that's in the bottling bucket to stay at the bottom along the side when you're racking from the fermentor to the bottling bucket? Because I couldn't keep the hose at the bottom of the bucket, it kept floating up along the top.

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No, it's not "important" I still believe the sugar and the beer mix fine. and y'all are just impatient.

You could use a clotespin or something and clap it on the top, which might help hold it in place.

If you use my bottling bucket dip tube design from the my bottling thread, I fit the hose through that and it holds it in place pretty well.

northernlad said:

I found a smattering of bottles overcarbed when I just let the racking mix the sugar in. I now gently mix halfway through and have not had random foamy beers.

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I have used the spoon on every batch i have made. Never had an issue.

I did an american amber ale almost 4 moths ago that still has zero carbonation. I used the sugar then rack on top method. Since then I have added the sugar partially throughout the racking to the bottling bucket and stirring very slowly for a small amount of time. The result has been consistent carbonation in every batch with no problems.

70!?!? uh oh. My kitchen is probably the warmest room and is 63 during the day. Hmmm...I need to figure something out before I bottle the IPA in my fermentor...

niko said:

I have used the spoon on every batch i have made. Never had an issue.

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Ditto, I gently move the spoon back and forth while I fill the bottles until I get to the last gallon of brew. Everything but the Spiced Winter has been successful and I think the oils from the Clove are battling head retention.

RogueVassar said:

70!?!? uh oh. My kitchen is probably the warmest room and is 63 during the day. Hmmm...I need to figure something out before I bottle the IPA in my fermentor...

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If it's under 70 then you have to just realize it's going to take longer......And don't start a my beer isn't carbed and it's been 3 weeks thread.

Is anything over 70 degrees ok? Say like 85 for instance. Or is there a range the bottles should stay in for those three weeks?

dae06 said:

Is anything over 70 degrees ok? Say like 85 for instance. Or is there a range the bottles should stay in for those three weeks?

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Yes anything above 70 is okay. THere's not enough fermentation going on to get off flavors from high carbing temps.

Oh well you don't want to be storing them above 212 degrees.