Didn't consider temp at bottling. Over carb?

[m3n00b]

So I never cold crashed before and usually bottle at ferm temp. Yesterday I bottled at 38f and added enough sugar for 65f. I read today you need less sugar at colder temps. Do I have an over carbed batch? Added 3.4oz corn sugar to just over 4 gallons of IPA at 38f. The sample i took at the end of the bottling bucket definitely was a small bit bubbly tasting. Thanks.


Oh and I crashed for the last 4 days of the 3 week primary.

 

[roger617]

The few times I cold crashed I did not adjust the amount of sugar, and they turned out great! I am curious to hear a definitive answer as well though.

 

[m3n00b]

The few times I cold crashed I did not adjust the amount of sugar, and they turned out great! I am curious to hear a definitive answer as well though.

Makes me feel better. Thanks bud!

 

[Yooper]

So I never cold crashed before and usually bottle at ferm temp. Yesterday I bottled at 38f and added enough sugar for 65f. I read today you need less sugar at colder temps. Do I have an over carbed batch? Added 3.4oz corn sugar to just over 4 gallons of IPA at 38f. The sample i took at the end of the bottling bucket definitely was a small bit bubbly tasting. Thanks.


Oh and I crashed for the last 4 days of the 3 week primary.

I always say I hate those priming calculators, and this is one of the reasons why.

You don't use the cold crashing temperature when you bottle- you use fermentation temperature, or the highest temperature the beer rested at post fermentation.

The reason is that calculators "guestimate" the amount of residual c02 in suspension but the reality is that most ales can do just fine with using 68 degrees in the calculator since they almost always reached that temperature. Even lagers will often have a diacetyl rest in the 60s.

I much prefer using .75-1 ounce of corn sugar per finished gallon of beer for priming, for all styles, as most people who drink bottled beer are accustomed to about 2.3-2.6 volumes of co2, regardless of style. Some of those priming calculators would have you have a stout be 1.3 volumes (totally flat) to be "to style". It IS to style for a cask ale, but not for a bottled beer. Othertimes, a weizen may be carbed to style at 4.5 volumes, according to the calculator. Not only is that gushers, it's bottle bomb territory.

Common sense and practical considerations outweigh any silly calculator that would have you have flat beer or bottle bombs!

 

[BigFloyd]

Let not your heart be troubled. If 65*F was your highest temp during fermentation, you did just fine.

I cold crash (5-7 days @ 35-36*F) all the time. When I bottle (about every third batch), I enter into the calculator the following:

- Desired volume of CO2 (i.e, 2.4)

- Volume of beer into the bottling bucket

- Highest temperature that the beer saw during the fermentation process.

- The type of priming agent (like corn or cane sugar)

The only thing I would suggest doing differently when priming cold beer is to give it a very, very gentle stir with a sanitized spoon to make sure that the priming solution gets evenly distributed into the batch.