Priming sugar: 1.5 teaspoons to a 0.5l glass bottle too much?

[makislav]

Brewing my second Cooper's batch - the first one was quite succesfull, but now I have some doubts concerning bottling with too much priming sugar.

About 8 hours ago, I added 1.5 teaspoons of table sugar to a 0.5l glass bottle. Do you think I am running into a risk of bottle explosion? Last batch I did included one 1l (plastic) bottle to which I added 3 teaspoons, and it turned out to be great. So, I figured out that 3/2=1.5, but I am now worried since Mr.Beer instructions that I found recommend to put 1 teaspoon to a 0.5l bottle, and 1.5 teaspoons to a 0.65l bottle.

What do you think - is 0.5 teaspoons of extra table sugar resulting in a bomb?

The batch sat in the fermenting tube for 13 days, OG was 1.045 and FG is 1.014, has been for more than three days.

As you can see I am a worrying noobie in these matters but glass bottles exploding starts to be quite dangerous.

 

[bobby4]

If you are worried put the bottle in a closet and cover it with a towel. How big is your total batch?

 

[makislav]

If you are worried put the bottle in a closet and cover it with a towel. How big is your total batch?

Thanks for the tip - that's what I should probably do right now.

My total batch is about 20l. However, I have only eight 0.5l glass bottles. The rest are carboying in Cooper's pet bottles (to which I still had carbo drops left, so no worries there), and in some soda bottles.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I have a designated Rubbermaid ToughTote with a snap-on lid on it labeld "Bomb Locker" on the bottom shelf. Haven't had to use it yet, but there's been a batch or two that's ended up in it for the sake of peace of mind.

Cleaning up shattered glass and sticky liquid that's how old is not one of my favorite things to do, so at the very least I want to contain it as much as possible.

I think you'll be overcarbed on them, but if you used a good quality bottle you should be in the clear. That's provided you were extremely careful in measuring out the individual amounts per bottle and the solution was well dissolved before you put it in the bottles.

Otherwise - a "bomb locker" is inexpensive piece of mind.

 

[bobby4]

You can search the forum for priming advice, but I think it is safer to prime the whole batch then bottle it. There is much less of a chance of making an error, for the cost of a plastic bucket I would strongly recommend it!

 

[makislav]

sumbrewindude: unfortunately I did not spoon the sugar with great precision, nor did I dissolve them in any way, just put them directly in the bottles (which are of a good quality and well sanitized). Hopefully the bottles will hold.

bobby4: the next time I am priming with table sugar, I have to dissolve the sugar for the hole batch. On the other hand, I am thinking to re-buy the Cooper's carbo drops, though the carbonation level is rather mild with them (for that reason-as a rookie in homebrewing-I decided to augment the sugar a bit, which of course is a mistake).

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Zepth]

+1 for batch priming. It allows much better control over how much carb per bottle and ensures the same carb per bottle. It's not a terrible idea to use boiled water for this, it helps to dissolve the sugar and sanitizes in case there was any funky things in there. Cheaper too.

Bomb locker, great idea. When I worked at the brewery we saw some bottle bombs and they are nothing to joke about. The standard cardboard boxes did a good job of shrapnel containment but were a total write off afterwards.

 

[tallmike]

For reference, the kits I buy come with 4oz of corn sugar (~8 tbsp) for bottling an entire 5-gal batch...

 

[Zepth]

Sadly my first reply managed to completely forget my initial thought when I opened the thread. Not too sure how that happened. I've seen suggestions of 1 tsp for the standard 341-355ml bottle. At that rate 1.5 tsp for 500 is pretty darn close.

 

[bobby4]

+1 Zepth. Batch priming us pretty much fool proof.

 

[makislav]

Sadly my first reply managed to completely forget my initial thought when I opened the thread. Not too sure how that happened. I've seen suggestions of 1 tsp for the standard 341-355ml bottle. At that rate 1.5 tsp for 500 is pretty darn close.

Hope you're right! I'll post a picture about these beers after a few weeks.

 

[boscobeans]

Way back before bottling buckets and carb tabs I remember using about 1 and 1/2 teaspoonfuls of sugar in each ONE QUART bottle.
Just to be sure put them in a bucket and cover with a blanket AND be careful handling them. A close friend lost part of his ear jostling a case of homebrew (quarts) on his shoulder because one decided to blow.

bosco

 

[makislav]

No overcarbonation whatsoever.

I have now opened several bottles. The glass bottles had 1.5 teaspoons per 0.5 litre bottle, and my 1.5 litre soda bottles had 4 teaspoons per bottle. None of the bottles I have opened so far came even near to overcarbonation. Here is one example of one of those bottles I opened today:

 

[makislav]

It seems that the sugar amounts were uneven (due to bottle-by-bottle priming), since the next beast turned out like this (but it clearly is not overcarbonated, but quite delicious!):