Double post.. stuck fermentation + bottling?

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ctufano

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I think I might have made a dumb rookiesh mistake

Went to bottle my session I brewed two weeks ago (tomorrow). Bottled everything and on the last runnings checked the FG, was 1.026. Per recipe, should have been 1.013.

I had put in my upright cooler to cold crash prior to bottling for only like 6 hours because I figured itd be better than nothing, and when I brought from my garage to kitchen it was bubbling for a few minutes on the counter thru the 3 piece airlock

Im going to check a bottle in a few days for the gravity and see if its dropping or not.

If it is, to avoid having bottle bombs, what are my options? Sterilize a bucket and pour the beers back in carefully to try to minimize oxygen? Then cover and let ride out?

I pitched two packets of wyeast american ale slap packs, both were nice and puffy after I activated and let rest for a day. OG was 1.055
 
Went to bottle my session I brewed two weeks ago (tomorrow). Bottled everything and on the last runnings checked the FG, was 1.026. Per recipe, should have been 1.013.

Do you mean the "last runnings" of the bottling bucket? The dregs of beer and priming solution? If that's the case you have both the finished beer and the UN FERMENTED sugar water skewing your reading....

Also if a beer is finished, as in gravity not moved in three days finished, it really doesn't meant you have problems... if there's a lot of unfermentable sugars in there for whatever reason, that the yeast can't break, then your final gravity can be high, but that doesn't mean you have a problem, it means fermentation is done, AND you have a sweet beer.... A high grav beer that finishes at 1.030 and has sat for a couple months not moving is DONE, all the normal yeast fermentable sugars are gone.


I had put in my upright cooler to cold crash prior to bottling for only like 6 hours because I figured itd be better than nothing, and when I brought from my garage to kitchen it was bubbling for a few minutes on the counter thru the 3 piece airlock

The answer to your airlock bubbling is found in this paragraph. Your fermenter bubbled because you just got done sloshing everything around between the garage and the kitchen. You kicked things up, including co2 (and if you had opened the fermenter prior) air in the headspace, and it is now OUT GASSING.

Remember an airlock is a VALVE, not a fermentation gauge, it's there to release any excess GAS that is in the fermenter... Gas can come out of solution for many reasons, like a change in atmospheric pressure, a rise in temperature, the cat trying to climb on it, a truck idling outside, or because we don't have telekinetic powers that allow us to move a fermenter from our garage to kitchen table without shaking things up a bit. ;)

Im going to check a bottle in a few days for the gravity and see if its dropping or not.

Walk away from your beers, I think you're over reacting I don't think there's anything to worry about. Like I said in the answer above.

If it is, to avoid having bottle bombs, what are my options? Sterilize a bucket and pour the beers back in carefully to try to minimize oxygen? Then cover and let ride out?

There's no way on God's green earth you could put your beer back into a bucket from bottles without pouring it somewhat through air, even if you flooded the bucket with co2 from a kegging system, some of it's still going to come into contact with the air...... O2 + Beer = Liquid cardboard.

You could rig up some sort of closed system, a two headed cork that fit in the bottle, one tube hooked up to co2 to push each bottle, and another tube with a line into a bucket or keg, but I could see that takes 2-3 hours or more to do it... is it really worth that for what sounds to me like a case of brewer's Hypochondria? Not to me....

If you think you might have a bottle bomb issue (which I think you DON'T) put them in a safe place, wrapped in blankets and wait it out for 3 weeks as normal then chill a a couple down and see.....)

If you DO have a bottle bomb or 2, then I would in a two weeks, check on the rest and maybe re cap them to void out the extra co2... but that's another time consuming process that might not be worth it...


I pitched two packets of wyeast american ale slap packs, both were nice and puffy after I activated and let rest for a day. OG was 1.055

Although that is why I advocate leaving the beer in primary for a month before doing anything, unless racking to a secondary (and if doing that waiting two weeks and taking grav readings to insure fermentation is complete) It's highly doubtful your beer wasn't done...that much yeast in a 1.050 beer tore through it pretty fast. I doubt the beer was stuck... again I think you got beer and priming solution and a compromised grav reading, nothing to worry about....

Right now, my advice is to chill, and NOT try to fix anything that might actually NOT be a problem.....

Hope I put your mind at ease a bit....

:tank:
 
You did. I wasnt TOO super stressed out, because the beer finished the visible fermentation (as far as watching the airlock) in about 3 days. I figure the yeast have done their part, and am cool with it being on sweet side (it actually tasted REALLY good when I sampled the hydrometer sample). I just wasnt sure if the yeast could somehow go back active due to the addition of the priming sugar, and then ferment out the balance of the fermentables + priming sugar, if that makes sense

Again, I plan on testing one in a few days just for giggles, and then I imagine it wont have changed much

How much impact would 5oz of priming sugar have on a gravity of a 4.5 gallon of beer (once siphoned off from ferment bucket)? I checked temp of my sample and was 60.3, so didnt have anything to correct as far as temperature

We shall see! I used to always age my beers in a big rubbermaid tote should one decide to pop. I may go pick up a tote as I've repurposed all of mine from when I stopped brewing. Or maybe just put in my swamp bucket, cover with some junk towels.

Thanks man. Was glad to see who responded before I even read your response :)
:tank:
 
The thing isn't going to be so much the amount of sugar water in the bottom of the bucket and the beer as much as the two densities but natural co2 just sort of skewing the grav reading up a bit, kind of like that thread I have about first time extract brewers OG grav reading being wonky a bit because of the two desinties, the wort and the top off water.... everything kind of helter skelter... plus just because you cold crashed doesn't meant you didnt rack some sludge over.... the stuff at the bottom of the bottling bucket isn't a "pure" a sample as what you would have pulled off from the fermenter or even the bottling bucket.

I really doubt a double pitched ale yeast into a 1.050 beer would have stalled unless your fermentation room dropped to the 50's and your yeast went dormant... I think you're fine.
 
True. I did suck up some of the trub at the very end... got carried away trying to get last bit of beer out. Not a lot, but some. The stuff I checked gravity was last amount of beer from bottling bucket, wasnt a full beer left so I poured it back out from bottle into tube to check gravity

Had some beer left in bucket, but the trub i sucked up had clogged the beer filler tip at the end :p
 
I just wasnt sure if the yeast could somehow go back active due to the addition of the priming sugar, and then ferment out the balance of the fermentables + priming sugar, if that makes sense



How much impact would 5oz of priming sugar have on a gravity of a 4.5 gallon of beer (once siphoned off from ferment bucket)? I checked temp of my sample and was 60.3, so didnt have anything to correct as far as temperature

The yeast will "go back active" in fermenting the priming sugar. That is what creates the carbonation in the bottles. I doubt that it would happen soon enough for you to see though. As discussed you probably don't have much, if any, balance of fermentables left.

If you are using a kit, they usually send a 5 oz. pack of priming sugar. That is because that is the closest "even" amount needed for most beers. In your case you will have a highly carbed beer since your final volume was only 4.5 gallons. I suggest that you use a priming calculator for determining the amount of priming sugar required. Usually it is less than 5 ounces, even for a full 5 gallon batch.
 
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