Beer sickly sweet after priming and bottling - is this normal?

[nreed]

Hi,

I primed and bottled my Amarillo/Chinook APA just now and decided to try the leftovers I couldnt get in the bottle and it was sickly sweet! Now I realise I've just added 50g of sugar but as it was to 7 litres of beer I assumed this wouldn't be a noticeable as it was! I assume that this may be normal and the yeast will convert all those sugars during conditioning but it was so sickly sweet I had to ask!

Other possible contributers - I used 5% honey malt.. have I over done this?

 

[doogie]

Are you sure it was done fermenting? What was the final gravity? 5% Honey malt seems like a lot, I normally use 8oz or less in a 5 gallon batch.

 

[nreed]

Ok so confession time... I don't do gravity readings... but it bubbled regularly for the first few days and then slowed down to a stop. Today was day 10 in the primary.

 

[Cool_Hand_Luke]

Ok so confession time... I don't do gravity readings... but it bubbled regularly for the first few days and then slowed down to a stop. Today was day 10 in the primary.

I would HIGHLY recommend opening a bottle and taking a gravity reading. If you don’t have a hydrometer and tube, try to get one and keep those bottles really cold until you can. While it’s possible to have a beer ready to bottle in 10 days, if you aren’t practicing a number of techniques to ensure really healthy yeast, it’s unlikely that it was finished. Are these glass bottles? If so get them in a plastic tote or something. They could potentially explode if there is too much residual sugar (which it sounds like there is). Another question, did you dissolve the bottling sugar in boiling water and then stir into the beer thoroughly? If you didn’t another possibility is that the sugar wasn’t mixed properly and it was left at the bottom of the bucket.

Sorry if this sounds urgent, but bottle bombs are no joke. You’ve got a bit of time to diagnose and fix, but we don’t want to hear any glass shrapnel stories from you!

 

[nreed]

I would HIGHLY recommend opening a bottle and taking a gravity reading. If you don’t have a hydrometer and tube, try to get one and keep those bottles really cold until you can. While it’s possible to have a beer ready to bottle in 10 days, if you aren’t practicing a number of techniques to ensure really healthy yeast, it’s unlikely that it was finished. Are these glass bottles? If so get them in a plastic tote or something. They could potentially explode if there is too much residual sugar (which it sounds like there is). Another question, did you dissolve the bottling sugar in boiling water and then stir into the beer thoroughly? If you didn’t another possibility is that the sugar wasn’t mixed properly and it was left at the bottom of the bucket.

Sorry if this sounds urgent, but bottle bombs are no joke. You’ve got a bit of time to diagnose and fix, but we don’t want to hear any glass shrapnel stories from you!

Yeah this has been in the back of my mind.. sugar mixed in boiled water and cooled, added to bottling bucket then syphon the beer into that so it should be well mixed. I'll see if I can get one from a friend - what temperature does it need to be to test the gravity?

 

[nreed]

 

[nreed]

Managed to get one from my step dad - so 1.012? Am I safe?!

Btw I tried the sample and it doesnt taste as sweet as I first thought so maybe there was some residual sugars at the bottom of the bucket after all.

 

[Cool_Hand_Luke]

Yeah this has been in the back of my mind.. sugar mixed in boiled water and cooled, added to bottling bucket then syphon the beer into that so it should be well mixed. I'll see if I can get one from a friend - what temperature does it need to be to test the gravity?

The cold was more to slow the carbonation rate down if it was going to take a week to get a hydrometer. Room temp for the gravity reading.

 

[Cool_Hand_Luke]

Managed to get one from my step dad - so 1.012? Am I safe?!

Btw I tried the sample and it doesnt taste as sweet as I first thought so maybe there was some residual sugars at the bottom of the bucket after all.

So it’s hard to know for sure with the limited information, but if you just racked over the top of the sugar solution there is a decent chance that the sweetness was primarily from incomplete mixing. If it were me at this point I would still put the bottles in a plastic tote to contain any potential bottle bombs. Test one after a week in the bottle, if it’s not carbonated to your liking wait another few days to a week and test another. Once it’s carbonated to the point you like, refrigerate the bottles and drink relatively soon. That’s probably the safest path. It’s possible the yeast had finished but also possible they had a bit more work to do.

Safest practice for bottling is to take 2-3 gravity readings and wait until it is stable to bottle. That practice is a bit less important if you give it more time in the fermenter.

Happy Brewing!

 

[PberBob]

So just in round numbers, 50 g of sugar into 7 L is about 0.7% wt, which is about 0.7 degP. On my hydrometer scale, that corresponds to a 0.003 SG difference. That suggests that the beer was around 1.009 before priming. That’s sounds like a pretty well attenuated APA, if it was stable.

My current batch is an Amarillo/Columbus Honey Pale. I use 8% honey malt and mash at 150 F. My OG/FG was 1.058/1.008.

I would think yours will turn out just fine. Cheers

 

[nreed]

Safest practice for bottling is to take 2-3 gravity readings and wait until it is stable to bottle. That practice is a bit less important if you give it more time in the fermenter.

Happy Brewing!

Thanks for your help - I've took your advice and put the bottles in a plastic box with lid lined with thermawrap so they can stay warm, dark and safe! My issue with hyrometers was always the waste as I only do small batches but I certainly don't want bottle bombs so have just ordered a refractometer so I can measure gravity and still keep my batch size up. Will be here in time for my first attempt at an American Wheat this weekend.

So just in round numbers, 50 g of sugar into 7 L is about 0.7% wt, which is about 0.7 degP. On my hydrometer scale, that corresponds to a 0.003 SG difference. That suggests that the beer was around 1.009 before priming. That’s sounds like a pretty well attenuated APA, if it was stable.

My current batch is an Amarillo/Columbus Honey Pale. I use 8% honey malt and mash at 150 F. My OG/FG was 1.058/1.008.

I would think yours will turn out just fine. Cheers

Great - 1.009 was my target on BeerSmith! I drank the leftovers after testing and it was great so really looking forward to the finished product! Thanks for your help!

 

[Miraculix]

Hydrometer reading after priming and a few days in the bottle? What does that prove? Nothing.

A normal strength pa after ten days is in 99,9% done, so relax.

A beer with priming sugar tastes sweet, that's normal, it's because of the sugar, sugar is sweet.

 

[faithie999]

you will be able to use your refractometer on brew day to measure the strength of your wort, but not after fermentation. a refractometer measures sugar levels. after fermentation, the readings won't be accurate due to the alcohol content without doing some corrections. best to buy a hydrometer for accurately reading FG. the ones I've bought come in a cylindrical tube that isn't much bigger than the bulbous part of the hydrometer, so it doesn't take much liquid to get a measurement. I just checked mine and found that it takes about 3 oz, or just over 1/3 cup, to get the hydrometer to float sufficiently to get a reading. not much of a waste of beer. it's also handy to have a hydrometer so that you can recalibrate your refractometer from time to time. beersmith has a tool to help with refractometer calibration.

 

[McKnuckle]

You'll be fine with the refractometer during fermentation as well; you just have to apply correction using a simple online calculator such as this one. (Use the Part II section)

Even if the readings with alcohol present are not dead-on precise, that's much less important than determining gravity stability, i.e. that fermentation is done. A refractometer is a valuable tool for small batch brewers, and purchasing one was well played.

 

[faithie999]

very handy link. thanks for posting it!

 

[rburrelli]

Brewing America hydrometers take a smaller sample size than typical hydrometers and are America made and very well made. They can be gotten on Amazon and probably direct as well.

 

[Dinadan]

I do not see where anyone has actually answered nreed's question about the sickly sweet flavor at bottling. I would say that my beer does taste somewhat sweet when I am bottling. Maybe not sickly sweet, but a lot sweeter than the finished beer.