Quick question. I brewed a summer ale and its been bottled now for a week and a half. I cracked open a test bottle to get a feel for its carbonation and can still taste sugar. I know it's still early but this is the first time I've tasted sugar after bottling out of my 6 different brews. I did lose 1 gallon of beer out of my 5 gallon batch when I had a volcano incident in primary and had to switch to a blow off tube. I did used 5oz of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch though. Is this way I still taste sugar? Will my beer be ok with more aging? Has this happened to any of you?
Still tasting sugar after bottling
- Thread starter wesw801
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ShaineT said:
My brew was in primary for a week and secondary for little over two weeks. Had a consistent FG. I tasted it after I racked it to the bottling bucket before the priming sugar and didn't taste sugar. Just the hint of lemon citrus. Now I I taste sugar with a hint of citrus
You are probably tasting the sugar because it hasn't finished carbing up. If you only had 4 gallons to bottle, 5 ounces of corn sugar seems way high - I'd be worried about bottle bombs. How many volumes of CO2 were you shooting for? What calculator did you use to determine how much sugar to use? How warm was the beer when you bottled?
mcbaumannerb said:
I just wasn't thinking that I lost a gallon when I was doing the priming sugar and forgot to adjust the amount for 4 gallons instead of 5. The temp was about 72 when I bottled. The bottles are sitting in about same temp while carbing. Do you think my beer will be ok with more time carbing?
Based on the temp and volume (and still assuming you used corn sugar) your probably a bit over 3 volumes of CO2. The good news is the bottles shouldn't explode. On the down side your beer will most likely be overcarbed. Let them finish (I'd let them go 2-3 weeks - depending on the temp.) Then chill them thoroughly before drinking.
I had found it to be quite common to need 3 weeks or longer to properly bottle condition (longer for higher gravity beer). In the long run I found running the calculation per style and volume then conditioning in a warmish place for over 3 weeks to be a winner. Also chilling down the bottles after warm conditioning then waiting another week will affect carbonation in the end. I think I remember a thread on here somewhere talking about the affects of cold crashing bottle conditioned beer and the effect on carbonation quality.
Puting the bottles in the fridge is a lot like cold crashing while you give'em a week to get co2 into solution. It also gives any chill haze time to rise & settle out.
