Did I just over carb and or make bottle bombs???

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Bottled my second batch tonight a chocolate Porter. I wanted to get a little more carb in it then the usual 3/4 cup priming sugar I so often read about. Now I am worried I may have massively over carbed it . Will I have bottle bombs? I slowly stirred the solution into my 5 gal batch so it was evenly distributed I am confident about that. But will the stout be way over carbed or what? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
No, you won't have bottle bombs. I weigh my sugar, and don't know how it equates to volumes (hence, how much carbonation you'll get with 3/4 cup) and you also don't say what the batch volume is.
But - typical carbonation is about 2.5vols
- there is normally (in an ale) about 0.7vols of CO2 existing in the beer from the ferment
- therefore, priming sugar adds about 1.8vols
- a typical bottle might fail at somewhere around 5vols
- you'd have to use about 2.5 times the normal priming sugar to get bottle bombs.

Bottle bombs mostly come from bottling before the ferment is finished.

Plug your numbers into a priming calculator like this http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ to get an idea of what the carbonation will be like.
 
There are plenty of carbing calculators out there that you can punch in your data and determine how many volumes it will come out to. We would need to know what type of sugar you used, how much by weight, volume of wort you added it to, and if your beer had hit terminal gravity.

In general, your standard beer bottle isn't designed to hold more than 2.8 volumes IIRC. And that number goes down with subsequent bottlings, just as any container stresses and weakens with repeated pressure cycles.
 
So, just how much sugar did you use?

If it is over-primed, it WILL over-pressurize and you WILL have exploding bottles.

I've done a CUP of dextrose in five gallons before without having exploding bottles.

All the Best,
D. White
 
Bottled my second batch tonight a chocolate Porter. I wanted to get a little more carb in it then the usual 3/4 cup priming sugar I so often read about.

The question is how much did you actually put in? Was it corn sugar or table sugar? Carb volume is also temperature dependent. It also depends on how firmly packed your sugar. If you used 1 cup of corn sugar in 68F beer for a 5 gal brew your volume could be as high as about 3.3. Assuming you didn't pack it tightly, probably closer to 3.0. If you used like less than a cup, you're probably in the high 2's. Bottom line - if you really want to be consistent and accurate, get a digital scale ($15) and weigh your sugar. Also use an online priming calculator. Here's the one I use.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

BTW, that's a really high carb for a porter. You would also probably appreciate the chocolate flavor more at lower carb.
 
I personally use the calculator and measure by weight so I have some control over my desired CO2 volumes, but mostly so I don't over prime. Does "a little bit more than usual 3/4 cup" mean a few pinches more or like 1 cup, if the latter, you may be at 3.5 volumes or more. It really depends on type of sugar, the weight, and if you actually transferred 5 gallons or closer to 4.75/4.5.

If it were me, I would probably move to plastic tub or put boxes in trash bags. You can crack one in a week or so to kinda gauge where you are at..
 
The question is how much did you actually put in? Was it corn sugar or table sugar? Carb volume is also temperature dependant. It also depends on how firmly packed your sugar. If you used 1 cup of corn sugar in 68F beer for a 5 gal brew your volume could be as high as about 3.3. Assuming you didn't pack it tightly, probably closer to 3.0. If you used like less than a cup, you're probably in the high 2's. Bottom line - if you really want to be consistent and accurate, get a digital scale ($15) and weigh your sugar. Also use an online priming calculator. Here's the one I use.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

lol That was weird...
 
Since the OP did not state how much priming sugar was used the question of bottle bombs is impossible to answer. The advice to use a scale and a priming calculator is spot on!
 
I used 1cup corn sugar for 5 gal

You're most likely fine. A little excessive carbonation for a porter, but......


You can vent them some once they're carbed. I've done it before. Just lift the lid enough to let pressure out of the bottle then re-crimp the cap. No need to take the cap all the way off.

All the Best,
D. White
 
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