Forgot to ask before i did something!!!???

[biggerthanyou83]

I wanted to add a honey taste to my irish stout so i add in 8 tbs spoons of honey into the boiling water with the priming sugar. Would this be ok? I figured its no big deal but I just want to see whats everyone thinks.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

Ohhh and my next batch i want to make a blackberry IPA. BUT, i never used fruit before. Would i out blackberries in the wort while boiling? or in the secondary? Also can i use fresh blackberries and do i need to worrie about wild yest?

 

[cfonnes]

Did you reduce the amount of priming sugar? 8 teaspoons does not sound like a lot of honey, you will probably not notice any difference. Perhaps a little overcarbonated, but I do not think that you will have bottle bombs.

I re-read your post, with 8 table spoons and normal amount of priming sugar bottle bombs are possible.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

no i didnt reduce it..... Ill just keep on eyes on them i guess.... I new i should of asked!

 

[MeatyPortion]

If you didn't reduce the amount of priming sugar you may want to lay some garbage bags around the bottles.

 

[Brandonovich]

I have done a honey bitter recipe before that had 2 lbs of honey in it and had little or no honey flavor. Because it is all sugar it ferments almost completely away.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

OK i just checked.... They were pre packaged packets.. I put in 6 2 oz packets of honey. so 12 oz of honey.... It really didnt look like that much.

 

[Golddiggie]

How much sugar did you also use?? Assuming you mean tablespoons (TBSP) not teaspoons (tsp)... 8 tablespoons can be a significant amount of honey. Rough conversion is 1 tablespoon is 1/2 ounce (water)... Which means it's more weight in honey... If you also primed with 5oz of sugar, you better put the bottles into a plastic bin, and/or heavy duty bags. Since you basically primed with double the amount of sugar you probably wanted/needed to...

Next time, add honey post primary fermentation (after a week or two) while still on the yeast. You can also use it in place of sugar. If you go that route, use 1.25x the amount of corn sugar you would have, by weight (NOT volume)...

 

[Golddiggie]

OK i just checked.... They were pre packaged packets.. I put in 6 2 oz packets of honey. so 12 oz of honey.... It really didnt look like that much.

Plus how much sugar?? If you primed with 5oz of sugar PLUS 12oz of honey, you have grenades in the making... You added about 9-9.5 ounces of more sugar to the priming solution, putting you at damned close to a full pound (at least 14oz) of priming sugar... For a stout, that's insane...

 

[TTB-J]

Boom goes the dynamite.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

Ohhhhhh man! i used the regulare amount of priming sugar.... Do you think they will all blow? Oh man no good! No GOOD!

 

[biggerthanyou83]

i might as well just drink my beer green! lol

 

[Golddiggie]

Ohhhhhh man! i used the regulare amount of priming sugar.... Do you think they will all blow? Oh man no good! No GOOD!

When did you do this?? If it's not been that long, just get them into your bomb chamber and wait it out... If your bottles are strong, they'll survive. No idea how the brew will be though. Could have some heavy carbonic BITE to it. If all your bottles decide to turn into suicide bombers, then at least you've learned a valuable lesson...

 

[MeatyPortion]

Might as well change the name of the beer to Al-Qaeda Amber at this point. In the future remember that the amount of sugar you add to prime should be based on safety first, style and taste characteristics second. I generally add a cup of corn sugar with a 1/2 cup of water to my beer, or 1 tsp of corn sugar per 12 oz bottle, maybe less depending on style. I don't mean to imply anything about you but you seem really enthusiastic about homebrewing and I'd hate to see you get discouraged or worse, injured, due to over-primed bottles.

 

[steakandale]

+1 on bagging that...

Honey is something around 80% fructose and glucose but varies widely - which makes it tricky to prime with. The yeasties will keep on eating until its gone. I can't even say if you will taste anything of the honey after that, as the bulk of the honey's body will be consumed.

 

[Golddiggie]

i might as well just drink my beer green! lol

You could try chilling them down after a couple of days in bottles to see how they handle it... With that much sugar, you might only need a couple of days to carbonate to where you wanted. Put as many in your fridge as you can, and let them sit for at least a week or two (more if you can)... I would still use the plastic bags if you can, so that you have less cleanup if one decides to go BOOM!

+1 on the name change... Depending on how dark it is, you could come up with something fitting... Grenade Stout comes to mind...

 

[Revvy]

See if you added the full amount of priming sugar along with your honey then you have overprimed your bottles, so much so that you are in danger of bottle bombs possibly. You can prime with honey, many folks do, you just would use the correct amount rather than the sugar....

 

[Golddiggie]

I've primed with honey before... General rule of thumb is to use 1.25x the amount of corn sugar weight in honey... That typically does a good job of things. Obviously, if you have a decent amount of the same honey, you can tweak the amount based on your first batch primed. You might need to use more, or less, depending on the actual honey...

 

[biggerthanyou83]

LMAO! WOW this is going to be awesome! Ill be playing beer roulette! The bottles are nice and thick. If I let them sit for a week then put them in a cold fridge would that slow the yeast down?

 

[biggerthanyou83]

now when you say bombs.... is that just the tops will blow off or the bottles them self will blowup?

 

[Golddiggie]

LMAO! WOW this is going to be awesome! Ill be playing beer roulette! The bottles are nice and thick. If I let them sit for a week then put them in a cold fridge would that slow the yeast down?

That could be too long... You can always pull them out of the fridge, and let them warm up and go to town again... I would give them ~3 days before chilling and testing in a few more weeks.

The kind of bomb, I believe, depends more on how tight the tops are on, and the bottles... I've not had any to date... I might have something with my hard lemonade that I just bottled up... I went the cautious route and put them all into a plastic bin, which I made sure had the holes sealed off, right after bottling... I used a full can of concentrate to prime with, but I think I was close to the tolerance of the yeast. I'm planning on checking on them about every week, to see if any have turned into car-bombs or not. If I don't hear them blowing that is.. Worst case, I'll have to pour it all into the tub and start over... I'll lose some bottles in the process, but I'd rather have it all contained in the bin, then all over the living room floor.

 

[MeatyPortion]

Assume that we mean that the bottles will blow up. Take precautions now or explain to whomever you live with how beer and glass ended up all over your basement.

 

[TTB-J]

Send them to Take Some Advice for a review.

 

[Golddiggie]

Send them to Take Some Advice for a review.

Just use some of the items made to contain bottles breaking during shipping... Even if you chill them to dormancy, unless you pasteurize the brew, to kill the yeast, it could (very well) turn explosive during transit... OR, blow up when someone takes them out of the box... Actually, don't ship them unless you kill the yeast... We don't need to have what few options we have left, for shipping brew, closed off to us after someone needs X stitches after the bottle blows in their hand.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

OK well i have them in a box thats taped on the top and sides. Ill put them in the fridge in 3 days because i just bottled them.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

What if i just dump it back in the secondary and let it sit for a few weeks?

 

[Golddiggie]

What if i just dump it back in the secondary and let it sit for a few weeks?

I wouldn't... Too much chance of oxidation... At that point, you'd probably be better off just dumping it IMO... If you're feeling brave, leave some in the box, while you start the rest chilling down after ~3 days... It could be a decent experiment to see how they are after another day, then two, then three... At a week, only plan to have a few left, so there's less mess if they decide to go POP (like the weasel)...

 

[biggerthanyou83]

lol OK thanx guys..... I KNEW I SHOULD OF ASKED FIRST!

 

[Revvy]

What if i just dump it back in the secondary and let it sit for a few weeks?

Beer + Oxygen = liquid cardboard....once it's in the bottle you don't want to DUMP anything that's going to cause the beer to fall through the air...

What I would do is get a new set of caps sanitized, the CAREFULLY open a bottle, just enough to losen the cap, not enough to remove the cap. Let them vent for about 5 minutes then re-cap them. And hope that's enough.

But I would wear thick gloves and safety eye wear.

Or just put them in a safe place...pray that they don't blow, and when carbed, try chilling them for at least 2 weeks before opening one and expect gushers.

You've put yourself in a very rough position.

 

[biggerthanyou83]

SHould i wait a day before i vent them? Im prob going to try that..... ill let everyone know how they end up.