How to tell when conditioning is finished

[cotillion]

I recently bottled a beer that had been stuck, probably due to hot mash temp making wort nonfermentable. I repitched with champagne yeast and didn't get any more drops in SG over several days, so I went ahead and bottled with 3g dextrose/5 gallons. That was about 5 days ago.

I have some PET bottles in addition to my glass bottles, and the PET bottles are getting quite firm. I'm worried that I may end up with bottle bombs in the next few days.

Is it possible that bottling reactivated the fermentation of the previously stuck wort? If I know my PET bottles are very firm, can I take that to mean it has enough carbonation for my desires? Can I go ahead and refrigerate my concern bottles to arrest any further activity or should I just wait it out? Trying to be ready to serve this beer in about a week.

 

[zachattack]

Did you really only add 3 grams = 0.1 ounces of priming sugar? That should give you almost no carbonation, so chances are your theory is correct and the original fermentation restarted and is finishing in the bottle. It's possible the agitation and the sugar addition helped wake up the yeast and get things going again.

What was the OG and SG at bottling? What style of beer?

I'd throw one of the (glass) bottles in the fridge ASAP, then try it. If it's very highly carbonated I'd put all the bottles in the fridge and try to drink them pretty quickly. Or you can try to vent/recap the bottles, but that's kind of a pain.

 

[cotillion]

Oops my mistake. 3 oz.

 

[cotillion]

Did you really only add 3 grams = 0.1 ounces of priming sugar? That should give you almost no carbonation, so chances are your theory is correct and the original fermentation restarted and is finishing in the bottle. It's possible the agitation and the sugar addition helped wake up the yeast and get things going again.

What was the OG and SG at bottling? What style of beer?

I'd throw one of the (glass) bottles in the fridge ASAP, then try it. If it's very highly carbonated I'd put all the bottles in the fridge and try to drink them pretty quickly. Or you can try to vent/recap the bottles, but that's kind of a pain.

Was 3 oz, my bad. It's a pumpkin beer, and I probably mashed too high. OG was bout 1.080 and it has been at 1.026 for about 2 weeks, including after the pitch of champagne yeast. I am happy with the taste of the beer, just don't want anything exploding. Would be real sad if I worked so hard to restart fermentation to no avail only to have it happen in bottle.