Yes...I Forgot Bottle Caps

Just had to share my blunder to possibly help others from encountering the same situation.

I was ready to bottle my Cal Common last night and thought I was way ahead of the game. I had sanitized my bottles the night before and covered them in a sanitized bin. I boiled up the priming sugar and had that cooling. Next, I racked the beer from my carboy to the bottling bucket. Everything was CRUISING along! (I was even enjoying a homebrew at the time)

I set out my bottles on went to look for the caps that I thought I had recently ordered. None to be found!!!! I swore that I had ordered some, but it was just a figment of my imagination. I went back to the email confirmation and found that I had not added them to the order. What a Jackass I was thinking to myself!!

Then my thoughts went to the beer. What do I do??? Thankfully, I had not added the priming sugar yet. My garage is hot, so I decided to siphon the beer back into the carboy as gently as possible and put it back into my fermentation chiller (it only fits the carboy).

I'm a little worried about the extra oxygen I added to the beer during all the transfers, but I think it should be ok.

My wife had a good time making fun of me and I took it in stride while observing the gospel RDWHAHB (I was on to my 2nd at that moment)

Today, I have to drive 20 miles to the nearest LHBS (not so local!) to get some freakin' caps.

Moral of the story: Make sure you have all the right tools BEFORE you start the job.

haha I would lay out everything I needed, get it sanitizing, rack then start my priming sugar boil.

I always get 2-3 bags of caps.Almost did what u did,once.

In the future lay out all your necessities BEFORE you start racking your beer or boiling your priming sugar.

That is so like something I would do. I bet you forget to take your FG readings too, right?

Homercidal said:

That is so like something I would do. I bet you forget to take your FG readings too, right?

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No....I definitely take the FG readings (It's a chance to sample the beer!). I'm an information junkie. However, sometimes I forget the most basic things

Glad I can laugh about it and hopefully help others avoid the oversight!

Mr. Brightside would say that the extra day of clearing is probably going to make the beer that much better.

Well, I can kind of relate. After boiling the priming sugar I forgot to add it to the bottling bucket. So an hour or two after bottling, I uncapped all the bottles and added a teaspoon of the priming solution... however beer seems kind of flat after waiting 2 1/2 weeks.

weirdboy said:

Mise en place

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Words to live by! I would be utterly lost without it. Now I just needto apply the same principle to the non-brewing portion of my life.

been there done That had to wait a week for caps to ship. no local brew shop. its OK i think the extra week made a difference. now i just order large amounts of caps and check my stock in Beersmith to verify

I hate it when that happens.

I won't have to worry about that for a while. The father in law gave me six bags of caps this weekend.

RecruitNBrew said:

I set out my bottles on went to look for the caps that I thought I had recently ordered. None to be found!!!! I swore that I had ordered some, but it was just a figment of my imagination.

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Because many folks buy caps in bulk and use as needed, this kind of mistake is pretty easy to make. We all have pigments of our invagination. Or whatever you said.