bubbles

[JoeTrott]

When I brew with kit beer it overcarbonates. I live in San Francisco and not sure if climate plays a part. What do I so? If less sugar, half? 3/4? Thanks

 

[flars]

There are two main reasons for a beer to be over carbonated. To much priming sugar was used or fermentation was not complete before bottling.

Here is a link to a priming sugar calculator.
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?14635422#tag

Weigh the amount of priming sugar for accuracy.

 

[RM-MN]

I'll bet it stays pretty cool in San Francisco. Temperature plays a big part in how long it takes yeast to complete a fermentation. If you are following kit recipe instructions, I'll bet that they are planning on warmer temperatures as well as rushing the time so you buy more kits. Try leaving one beer in the fermenter for a longer time, perhaps as long as 3 to 4 weeks so the yeast have plenty of time to get all the sugars eaten, then add the correct amount of priming sugar and I'll bet you'll get beer that is properly carbonated.

 

[JoeTrott]

Thank You Both

 

[JoeTrott]

I am doing kit beers and I just did a batch and forgot to cook it because I had to pick up someone. All I did was steep the grains for an hour and dissolve the hops etc. When I came back I forgot to fire back up and cook so I just threw the stuff in the fermenter and added yeast. Should I toss this batch out or what should I do?

 

[flars]

I am doing kit beers and I just did a batch and forgot to cook it because I had to pick up someone. All I did was steep the grains for an hour and dissolve the hops etc. When I came back I forgot to fire back up and cook so I just threw the stuff in the fermenter and added yeast. Should I toss this batch out or what should I do?

You haven't said what kind of kit you used. Hard to offer advice. Just an off guess, pour it back into the pot boil it, cool it, and pitch new yeast.

 

[TipsyDragon]

Keep the beer. You might be lucky and it's fine. Give it a sniff test 2-3 weeks from brew day. If it smells fine proceed to a taste test. If it passes your good to bottle (provided it's done fermenting ). Nothing lethal can grow in beer. Worst case it will smell and/or taste bad.

 

[JoeTrott]

Sorry, I'm new at this. It's an Irish stout by monster brew. I added 2 cups of oatmeal during the mash. Bobs red mill Scottish oatmeal. Other than that I followed the directions. Currently it smells wonderful and I intended on checking the sg on Saturday which will be one week into the ferment I plan on fermenting 3-4 weeks before priming.

 

[TipsyDragon]

Any idea what altitude your at? Carbonation calculators assume sea level. Seeing as your in San Francisco I don't think this is the source of your carbonation issue. In the Nov/Dec issue of Zymurgy they have a great article starting on page 65 that explains allot about carbonation. Might be worth a look.

 

[JoeTrott]

Thanks Tipsy i'll check it out. I'm about 50-60' above sea level.

 

[RM-MN]

I am doing kit beers and I just did a batch and forgot to cook it because I had to pick up someone. All I did was steep the grains for an hour and dissolve the hops etc. When I came back I forgot to fire back up and cook so I just threw the stuff in the fermenter and added yeast. Should I toss this batch out or what should I do?

If you are using unhopped malt extract, you need to boil your wort for an hour to extract any bittering from the hops you added. Without the boiling you will end up with a very sweet beer.