First time Saison brewer - bottled too early?

[uwlarson]

Hello All

Thanks for taking the time to look at my post. This is my experience being a first time all-grain brewer:

-Mashed in my grain bill at ~140 F and gradually added hot water/increased the temperature to 154 where I held for 60 minutes. Added more water and increase to 166 and held for another 20 minutes. Vorlauf and sparged.
-Between the sparge step and boiling I somehow broke my hygrometer. Oops. So yeah, I have no OG measurement.
-Cooled my hot wort down quickly with copper coil to about 90 but it wouldn't budge much after that, so I removed the coil, added the warm wort to my Big Bubbler 6.5 gal container and placed it in a BigBag insulated fermenting container and put ice/frozen bottles around it. Somehow I ended up falling asleep and when I woke up the wort temp was 44F!!
-Gradually warmed the wort to about 60 F and pitched room-temp Wyeast 3711 from a swollen smack-pack after oxygenating the wort.

Fermentation really took off right away. All I can say is that, and I know many of you already know this, 3711 is a total beast! Had great krausen and activity throughout the container for 5-6 days. After this the krausen receded and particles stopped flying around the container. Wanting to be somewhat patient, I decided to wait until day 8 to take a gravity measurement with a sanitized beaker and shiny new hygrometer (which I made sure to handle very carefully). I couldn't believe my eyes when the reading came out 1.003. What?! I couldn't believe my taste-buds when I tried the beaker sample and it actually tasted good. Nice esters, spice and refreshing but obviously flat with minimal carb. So I made a crazy decision based on the following: 1. I felt like I had reached my FG at this point and primary fermentation was complete. Look - I understanding the concept of leaving the product on the primary yeast another 1, 2, 3 weeks or whatever to allow the yeast to "clean up" after itself and eliminate off flavors. But 2. I liked the taste of the product at this point and was eager to bottle condition and try my first brew a couple weeks later.

So yeah, I bottled my first all-grain home brew Saison after just 8 days in the primary. You must be thinking - what the hell was he thinking? I used enough boiled priming sugar for about 2.7 equivalents CO2 prior to bottling in 26 heavy-duty brown 22 oz bottles and capping. They are currently being stored in a closed box in a dark 76 F space.

Now the only thing that is truly concerning me is over-carbonating since I did bottle so young. Should I be concerned? When would you refrigerate a bottle, pop the top and try a sample?

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Although I'm totally new to this hobby I feel hooked and am looking forward to my next recipe and batch. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

First and foremost you must post your broken hydrometer here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=148083

Now, welcome to all grain brewing and the forums! 8 day is fast, and is probably not the recommended time frame of most...but I've seen and heard people talk about having grain to glass beer in two weeks. So to be honestly 8 days might have been enough time for the fermentation to be completed.

Also same boat here usually 2 weeks in the bottle will get you carbonated but I just saw a thread last week and people said they had fully carbonated beer in 1 week.

You might see a trend here..everyone has different experiences but they also have different procedures and live in different climates too. So long story short to be safe I would leave beers in the fermenter for at least 2 week if I bottle just in case b/c of bottle bombs. Also once bottled I would suggest putting them in the fridge one at a time until you decide its at the carbonation level you desire. I would start that around the 2 week time frame also.

 

[paperairplane]

Typically you should take readings over a couple of days to be sure - but 1003 is pretty low. You should be fine. I'd test one at day 5.

Saison yeast is pretty aggressive and can certainly finish quickly.

 

[uwlarson]

Thank you for the fast replies! I feel better already. Still not out of the woods yet and I'm still concerned about bombs but only time will tell.

 

[griffi]

1.003 is a low FG but that doesn't mean you couldn't have a bottle bomb - 2.7 volumes is high carb and only an average, as priming sugar can have a tendency to be distributed unevenly in a bottled batch. I would keep them boxed and bagged in case one of them explodes. I would also try to resist the urge to dive into them too early. I would expect that the yeast in the bottles are still improving your beer for a month or so after bottling, especially if your original Gravity was on the high side. Sometimes I'll be drinking the last of a batch and think Damn this is much better than it was a few weeks ago...

 

[JordanKnudson]

I think you'll be fine. I've packaged some beers after only a week in the fermentor, and although I wouldn't risk it with every beer, I never had a problem. As far as your co2 volumes, 2.7 is medium-high (not as high as many Belgians or German wheat beers), but as long as you packaged in heavy duty bottles, you've got nothing to worry about. That said, any time I've ever had concerns that I might get bottle bombs (has never actually happened), I put them in a plastic laundry tub, lay a heavy towel or two over the bottles, then put the lid on the tub. That way, if they were to explode, it would be contained and not dangerous or terribly messy.

 

[normonster]

Thank you for the fast replies! I feel better already. Still not out of the woods yet and I'm still concerned about bombs but only time will tell.

I doubt you'll get bottle bombs at 1.003, but you might put the bottles in big zip locks just in case.

 

[Brewmasher]

This yeast can be a chameleon with age. I did a test batch using only 2 row fermented in the high 70's. I force carbed a bottle when I bottled (fermented 2 weeks, finished 1.003). I loved the flavor, lots of fruity esters. After 2 weeks it was fully carbed, but all the esters disappeared, and was a bit hop forward. A week later (last night) I had another one and now the hop has subsided and I can get a hint of ester.

 

[uwlarson]

Hey guys. Wanted to let you know that I put my first bottle in the fridge last night and opened this morning. Nice carbonation, good head and color, tastes is excellent if not a little on the "green" side. Flavor is nice with forward but not overwhelming hops that linger long after a sip. Not positive what the final ABV is but I could really feel a strong buzz after just one 22 oz bottle (and I'm not a lightweight). Overall I'm very satisfied with my first brew and believe it will only get better with age. Thanks for the help and reassurance. On to the next one!

 

[uwlarson]

Some pictures.