Priming of a trappist

[aeromarco]

Hi guys.

I made a batch of trappist. I followed the instructions in the recipe and i think i miss understood them or they where wrong. The problem is i think i've added too much sugar.

The recipe had 500g to 20l of beer. Since i had problems with filtering i only got 13l. I used 300g of sugar (candy sugar).

My beer is sweet, it doesn't taste bad at all, to me it looks like beer and martini mixed....

I think i put too much sugar, and i am afraid the the bottles will burst. Maybe if i cool the beer to temperatures around 0ºC the priming will stop, but if do the beer will continue to be sweet. Am i right?

I think i made process wrong, maybe the sugar was to be fermented... i don't know, it's my third brew and the best until now.

Can anyone help me? What should i do? I don't want a sweet beer, but sweet beer is better than no beer...

 

[PAjwPhilly]

A lot of posts start like this.... First few beers + recipe.

So when you followed the recipe what was the fermentation length/time? Did you ferment down to a low final gravity? Or did you just follow the recipe? If your beer wasn't done fermenting it might be on the sweet side.... then adding sugar would make a sweet beer. Do you see a ring around the fill line of your bottle?

How carbonated is the beer. Belgian styles are usually on the high side of carbonation. Is the beer gushing when you open the bottle?

Lastly, what style is it? A trappist Belgian Quad is fine if its a little sweet.

 

[FrozenOcean]

300g of sugar into 13L at bottle priming sounds like bad news to me. I'm generally doing a little over 100g into 21L. So... You're basically priming at 6 times the normal rate, assuming that this candy sugar is as fermentable as table sugar, which it probably is.

Having never made "bottle bombs" before, I can't really say if these are going to explode. But it doesn't sound good.

 

[solbes]

Um yeah, I would guess that the 500 grams of sugar was meant to be added to the boil, or to a fermenter and be allowed to ferment out again.

You added 300 grams of sugar (10.5 ounzes for US units) to 13 L of beer (3.4 gallons). That will create bottle bombs for sure. Be careful!!!

You could refridge every bottle, but I would guess it will be almost undrinkably sweet. You need to let them ferment out, but you have to be in a carboy or bucket with airlock for that. You could possibly open each one and SLOWLLYYY CAREFULLLLYY pour each bottle down the side of the fermenter by trying to minimize splashing/oxidation. Once you dump them all in, put the airlock on. Wait for it to ferment out again (a couple of weeks maybe). I'm sure you will add some oxidation, but if you consumed most of them in the first 3-6 months you'd probably be okay.

Then rebottle and prime using a standard amount of sugar, maybe 70-100 grams to 13 L. Use a priming calcluator to be more precise. Cheers!

 

[PAjwPhilly]

It has been sooo long since I bottled. I didn't even notice that was such a large amount.

 

[aeromarco]

A lot of posts start like this.... First few beers + recipe.

So when you followed the recipe what was the fermentation length/time? Did you ferment down to a low final gravity? Or did you just follow the recipe? If your beer wasn't done fermenting it might be on the sweet side.... then adding sugar would make a sweet beer. Do you see a ring around the fill line of your bottle?

How carbonated is the beer. Belgian styles are usually on the high side of carbonation. Is the beer gushing when you open the bottle?

Lastly, what style is it? A trappist Belgian Quad is fine if its a little sweet.

thanks for your help

The final gravity was the expected, according to the recipe. I took several measurements to check the fermentation had finished, and it was...

I see no ring around the fill line, no sediments neither. The beer is not clear but i think its normal.

Carbonation is fine, i bottled last saturday, i opened one an hour ago and it made a nice foam, around 1cm high. When i opened the bottle it made that normal sound of gas... but no beer got out.

About the style, i think it is an abbey, that's what was written in the recipe. In my country (Portugal) there is no tradition of home brew. And i am learning with piece's of information that i get from different places..

 

[aeromarco]

Um yeah, I would guess that the 500 grams of sugar was meant to be added to the boil, or to a fermenter and be allowed to ferment out again.

You added 300 grams of sugar (10.5 ounzes for US units) to 13 L of beer (3.4 gallons). That will create bottle bombs for sure. Be careful!!!

You could refridge every bottle, but I would guess it will be almost undrinkably sweet. You need to let them ferment out, but you have to be in a carboy or bucket with airlock for that. You could possibly open each one and SLOWLLYYY CAREFULLLLYY pour each bottle down the side of the fermenter by trying to minimize splashing/oxidation. Once you dump them all in, put the airlock on. Wait for it to ferment out again (a couple of weeks maybe). I'm sure you will add some oxidation, but if you consumed most of them in the first 3-6 months you'd probably be okay.

Then rebottle and prime using a standard amount of sugar, maybe 70-100 grams to 13 L. Use a priming calcluator to be more precise. Cheers!

you got me worried now. i was afraid that this would happened.

If i cool them down, will the carbonation stop?

 

[solbes]

I think so, its how you make home made root beer without a CO2 cylinder. If you used an ale yeast, I would guess carbonation would be very slow at 50F, and stop altogether below 40 or 45F (4-7 C) . If you think they are drinkable as is this would be easier than the alternative I mentioned.

But you need to get all of them into a fridge ASAP.