Bottling: I added my corn sugar too early. Oops.

[HefeSlamDunkel]

Does anyone know if adding my priming corn sugar to my hefeweizen 2 days before bottling it means that I need to add more just before doing the bottling, or if the sugar will still carbonate the beer in the bottles fine even though it's been sitting un-bottled with the corn sugar presumably carbonating away for a couple of days?

I did this by accident, obviously. I thought I was going to have time to bottle but I didn't. I also wanted to let the beer sit in the bottling bucket for a while to let more particles settle before bottling. Thanks!

 

[beersnblues]

I would be inclined to let it sit for a few more days to allow the sugar to ferment then re-prime and bottle.

 

[HefeSlamDunkel]

I would be inclined to let it sit for a few more days to allow the sugar to ferment then re-prime and bottle.

hmmm, I guess my only concern with that would be that it's already at the longer end of the hefeweizen fermentation time range, and I am worried letting it go longer might make the flavors less good. what do you think about that concern? thanks for your reply!

 

[IslandLizard]

It's fine. Beer gets better with some extra time after the main (primary) fermentation is over. It's called the conditioning phase, where the yeast cleans up its byproducts. Depending on the original gravity, yeast used, fermentation temps, usually 2-4 weeks. High gravity ones longer.

EDIT: It's not in a bottling bucket now is it? Leave it in the fermentor until you're ready to bottle. No need for secondary fermentor either.
BTW, Hefeweisen are always cloudy.

 

[IslandLizard]

hmmm, I guess my only concern with that would be that it's already at the longer end of the hefeweizen fermentation time range, and I am worried letting it go longer might make the flavors less good. what do you think about that concern? thanks for your reply!

Yeast is not aware of any of our time schedules.

 

[Math0]

Its very hard to say... Some yeast will do 50% of the job in 2 days compared to others 10% or not even. All depends of the fermentation temperature, the lag time, the yeast strain etc.

In your position I would either prime half than what you put in the first time or leave it for secondary fermentation for another week or 2 and then reprime and bottle. The problem with option 1 is that you will have a surprise carbonation meaning it would be impossible to know how they will turn out. Maybe if you had your FG#1 then took a gravity reading after you put the sugar in. Or even estimate the OG #2 with the amount of priming sugar and see 2 days later how it dropped, then see how much is left and add the priming sugar at that time. Too complicated and you dont have those readings. Wait for a second fermentation. You just raised the ABV basically.


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[HefeSlamDunkel]

thanks for the replies. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.
happy mardi gras.

 

[JimRausch]

If I were in the same situation, I would reprime.
I would be pretty sure that 2 days in a bucket with active yeast would very easily eat up all the 4-5 oz. of dextrose that you added.

 

[HefeSlamDunkel]

So it took a while to reply, sorry. Mardi gras. The hefeweizen came out great! I bottled a few without adding more priming/bottling/carbonating sugar. Most of the bottles were bottled after adding about a 1/2 cup of dissolved white table sugar.
After 1 week the bottles with extra sugar were well carbonated and tasted great, especially if swirling the yeast off the bottom of the bottle first.

The few I bottled before adding the table sugar did not carbonate as much, but did carbonate about halfway to the level of the added sugar ones. I could probably have added even a bit more sugar than what I added.
Here's a photo. Thanks so much for the advice.



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