I am such an idiot.

[PilotBMP]

I can't believe I just made this mistake:

I just made a Golden Ale. Went to bottle it today. Long story short I plugged in 5 gallons of 2.3 Co2 @ 40 degrees to get my 1.xx volumes needed. Great. Mixed everything together started bottling (I think you all see where this is going). All was going well until my senses came back to me. I will be conditioning the beer in basement at 68 degrees not 40!!:smack:
So, I put them in my fridge to condition which IS 40 degrees so I wouldn't end up with over carbed bottle bombs (at 68 degrees the volume needed was only .86 not the 1.xx that I put in).

My question to you knowledgeable:
It is an Ale that was cold crashed before bottling and now is conditioning at 40 degrees, will the yeast still do their thing, granted I know it will take longer but that's the price I pay for stupidity. Thanks again and next time someone smack me in the back of the head before I do something dumb.

Ben

 

[Singletrack]

You have some things mixed up, but we can help. How many oz of sugar did you use, and what type of sugar? Table sugar? Corn sugar?

 

[PilotBMP]

I used 1.1oz of corn sugar and 1.53oz of DME

 

[Singletrack]

Okay, you did not over carbonate, so get those bottles out of the fridge and put them where it is 70 degrees. You under-carbonated, but stay tuned for how much.

 

[Singletrack]

Well, sorry to say you will only get about 1.6 volumes, and this will seem quite flat.

The temperature you enter in the calculator is generally the highest temperature you reached during fermentation. Then, you want to enter the desired volumes of CO2, which is normally around 2.3, which is what you were trying to get, I think. A golden ale could go higher. Then, the calculator will tell you how much sugar to add in oz. This will vary depending on the type of sugar used. It becomes a little more difficult if you use 2 different types, so I would avoid that.

 

[PilotBMP]

Correct I was shooting for 2.3

Here is when I put in the 40 degrees (which I used):
Priming Calculator:
Units: US - Gallons / F / Ounces
Metric - Liters / C / Grams
Amount Being Packaged: 5 (Gallons)
Volumes of CO2: 2.3 (see table below)
Temperature of Beer: 40 (F) (see below *)


CO2 in Beer:
1.46 volumes
Priming Sugar Options:
Table Sugar: 2.2 oz.
Corn Sugar: 2.5 oz.
DME: 3.3 oz.

And here is what changes when using 68 degrees:

Amount Being Packaged:5 (Gallons)
Volumes of CO2: 2.3 (see table below)
Temperature of Beer: 68 (F) (see below *)


CO2 in Beer:
0.86 volumes
Priming Sugar Options:
Table Sugar: 3.8 oz.
Corn Sugar: 4.2 oz.
DME: 5.6 oz.

Do you think I should open all the beer and add more and rebottle?

 

[Singletrack]

I would see this as a great opportunity to try some of those carbonation drops, if you can get them right away. If not, I would open them all and dose a little sugar in each one. That will be challenging to get it right, but fun!

Maybe the calculator's volumes of CO2 in the beer is confusing you. This is the amount of CO2 in the beer BEFORE you prime and carbonate. Then, the only thing you got wrong was the temperature, which is tricky. You cold crashed, but the beer wasn't generating CO2 at that time, so there wasn't much available to absorb. Better to use the fermentation temperature of 68 F.

If you want to push your luck on this, I would shoot for 3.0 volumes for a Golden Ale. However, be aware that if you make a mistake and go high, KABOOM!

 

[Subdivisions]

If you go by Singletrack's calculation of 1.6 volumes then that would equate to having used 2.2 oz of corn sugar in a 5 gallon batch at 68F.

Inputting 2.3 volumes at the same volume and temp comes up to 4.2 oz of corn sugar. Subtract the two values and you're 2 oz short. Divide that by the number of bottles (let's use 50 as an arbitrary number) and you'll need .04 oz or 1.13 grams per bottle to get to the level you want.

If you have a scale then you could measure it in 1/4 teaspoons to see what the weight comes out to and adjust from there. You'll probably be able to be off by a little bit since you can get 3 volumes in a normal beer bottle without much chance of explosion.