Help I have flat beer

[Dee74]

Not to keep dragging this thread up but I did a little experimenting. I had some extra caps and the bottles I have left have been stored in a room that has been between 50-55 degrees for a month or so. I thought I would add more sugar and recap a few, bring them to a warmer part of the house and check back in a couple of weeks. I opened 7 bottles and was getting ready to add 1/2 tsp of sugar to each bottle when the beer just starting flowing uncontrollably out of the bottle. The bottles had only been uncapped about 10 seconds. Well that was quite the mess and they looked like a small volcano slowly erupting for several minutes. Did I find some bottles that received more sugar than others or is there something else going on here?

 

[BigCrazyAl]

... flowing uncontrollably out of the bottle. The bottles had only been uncapped about 10 seconds. Well that was quite the mess and they looked like a small volcano slowly erupting for several minutes. Did I find some bottles that received more sugar than others or is there something else going on here?

I believe if you opened them warm then the suspended yeast acted as nucleation points to allow CO2 to come out of suspension quickly. On a side note, have you verified that your caps seal correctly? I remember reading a while back where a guy got some that were apparently just decorative... not sure why they even make those.

 

[Dee74]

I believe if you opened them warm then the suspended yeast acted as nucleation points to allow CO2 to come out of suspension quickly. On a side note, have you verified that your caps seal correctly? I remember reading a while back where a guy got some that were apparently just decorative... not sure why they even make those.

I did open them warm without any refrigeration, next time I will chill the bottles if I want to add sugar. The caps came with my starter kit so I assume they are made for bottling.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

I did open them warm without any refrigeration, next time I will chill the bottles if I want to add sugar. The caps came with my starter kit so I assume they are made for bottling.

I'm sure they're fine then. Reading back in this, I don't see a mention of the amount of priming sugar you used. Do you remember? Apologies if I may have missed it.

 

[Dee74]

I'm sure they're fine then. Reading back in this, I don't see a mention of the amount of priming sugar you used. Do you remember? Apologies if I may have missed it.

I used 3.5 ounces of corn sugar in about a cup of boiling water.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

I used 3.5 ounces of corn sugar in about a cup of boiling water.

That seems like an acceptable amount for a 5 gallon batch. As others have said, dissolve it in at least 2 cups of water and rack the beer onto it in the bottling bucket. If it's too syrupy, it won't mix correctly and you'll get some carbonation consistency issues. I've made this mistake on my Weizenbock and have since started using 2-3 cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar. I personally am not sure about the Dominos dots or priming drops but that's just me worrying about sanitation.

 

[flars]

How many weeks were the bottles held at 70°F+ for conditioning? How many days did you chill each bottle before opening?

Full carbonation will not happen unless the bottles are chilled for at least three days in the refrigerator to force the CO2 into solution.

Adding granular sugar to a bottle that has some carbonation will result in instant gushing. I would not recommend this.

 

[flars]

That seems like an acceptable amount for a 5 gallon batch. As others have said, dissolve it in at least 2 cups of water and rack the beer onto it in the bottling bucket. If it's too syrupy, it won't mix correctly and you'll get some carbonation consistency issues. I've made this mistake on my Weizenbock and have since started using 2-3 cups of water to dissolve the priming sugar. I personally am not sure about the Dominos dots or priming drops but that's just me worrying about sanitation.

I missed this about only using one cup of water to dissolve the priming sugar. I use not less than two cups to create a thinner solution. A thinner solution will disperse more readily than one that is more syrupy.

 

[Dee74]

How many weeks were the bottles held at 70°F+ for conditioning? How many days did you chill each bottle before opening?

Full carbonation will not happen unless the bottles are chilled for at least three days in the refrigerator to force the CO2 into solution.

Adding granular sugar to a bottle that has some carbonation will result in instant gushing. I would not recommend this.

The bottles were at 70+ degrees for over a month. The bottles that I have chilled were in the refrigerator for 5 days to two weeks, all with the same outcome.

 

[Dee74]

[QUOTE="Adding granular sugar to a bottle that has some carbonation will result in instant gushing. I would not recommend this.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I will remember this. I did not even get to add the sugar before they started gushing.

 

[auburntsts]

Full carbonation will not happen unless the bottles are chilled for at least three days in the refrigerator to force the CO2 into solution.

This is not intuitive to me. Isn't most of the CO2 produced during conditioning already in solution since the bottle is under increasing pressure with a fixed volume--where's the gaseous volume that's being more readily absorbed into solution by chilling for 3 days?

 

[flars]

This is not intuitive to me. Isn't most of the CO2 produced during conditioning already in solution since the bottle is under increasing pressure--where's the gaseous volume that being forced into solution by chilling for 3 days? I could understand that for kegging but not bottling.

The CO2 produced by the yeast utilizing the priming sugar takes the path of least resistance. The CO2 mixes with the air molecules in the head space. Cool temperatures and time allows the gas to reach equilibrium through out the confined space which is the bottle.

 

[auburntsts]

The CO2 produced by the yeast utilizing the priming sugar takes the path of least resistance. The CO2 mixes with the air molecules in the head space. Cool temperatures and time allows the gas to reach equilibrium through out the confined space which is the bottle.

I got it, but the headspace in a bottle is miniscule. I still don't see how chilling will effectively increase the volume of dissolved CO2 in solution in a bottle especially since I assume by this time little to no additional CO2 is being generated or added to the bottle. I'm of mind that what you are perceiving as increased CO2 forced into solution by longer duration cooling, is actually just the beer retaining more of the CO2 that's already in solution as a result of normal conditioning once the bottle is opened vs a warm beer that will more readily release its suspended CO2. IOW I'm thinking once it's cooled to serving temp, waiting a few won't change the amount of suspended CO2 appreciably. But hey, that's just my gut. I don't have any data to prove one way or the other.

 

[Rhaop]

Chilling the beer after it’s carbonated helps keep the gas in solution, gushers when opening warm bottle conditioned beer is common in my opinion

 

[ncbrewer]

I used the Brewers Friend priming calculator. Using 5 gallons and 68F, it shows 3.5 oz of corn sugar yields 2.07 volumes. That's really low - that could be the whole problem.