Help! We did something stupid!

[rkausch]

So, today, we bottled our 10 gallon batch of the Quad we did, and it tastes awesome. We got great fermentation, and finished out at 1.003. I did a 5 liter starter of yeast to pitch for bottling, and we pitched it in before bottling. We did cork and cage, with ~40 750s, and 18 or so 375s.

Long story short, while we were going out for pizza, I realized that we failed to put any priming sugar into the batch, and with the final gravity so low, it'll never carbonate.

So, what can we do? We've thought about uncorking each bottle, using a small syringe (without the needle of course) to put in a measured amount of priming sugar, then re-corking and re-caging the bottle. Also thought about trying to dump all the bottles back into the bottling bucket, and re-bottling. I'm leaning more towards the first idea, rather than the second.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[passedpawn]

You could just drop a carb tab into each one. Coopers and Muntons makes them. I hate them. Used them once and they took forever to dissolve.

Much better solution is using Domino Sugar Dots. Each dot is about 0.085 ounces, equal to a half tsp of sugar. Coincidentally, this is exactly what a 12oz bottle of beer needs.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHAQ7FS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[day_trippr]

Dumping all those bottles into anything is going to oxidize the heck out of the beer.
The dots are the better way by far...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

Dumping all those bottles into anything is going to oxidize the heck out of the beer.
The dots are the better way by far...

Cheers!

Yea, right. I'd also be really concerned adding sugar (liquid or granular) directly to the bottle. It wouldn't take much of a mistake to end up with problems.

These little cubes are 1/2" by 1/2". That means the hypotenuse (widest part of the cube) from corner to corner is 0.71". Inside diameter of a standard longneck bottle is 0.75". So, they should drop right in there. But if the bottles are non-standard, might be a tight fit. Nothing a rubber mallet or block of wood couldn't fix

 

[chickypad]

Did I read that right, you did a 5L starter for bottling?

 

[passedpawn]

Did I read that right, you did a 5L starter for bottling?

Hmm. I skimmed right over that. I'm waiting to hear what that means too.

Assuming that is true, the OP should know that typically you don't need to add any additional yeast for bottling. The body of the beer will contain plenty of yeast in suspension. Even if you were very careful when racking the beer to the bottling bucket, even if you cold crashed with some type of fining agent (e.g., gelatin or polyclar or such), you'll still have plenty of yeast for carbonation.

The only exception here is very high alcohol beers ( > 10% ) or beers that sat on the yeast for very long times ( > 3 months ). In these are cases where the yeast health is questionable, I have added a half packet of dry rehydrated dry yeast to the bottling bucket. I like to use S-04 because it's a very good flocculator. After the bottles are carbed and the sugar supply is exhausted, it will settle to the bottom and pack down nice and hard, making the subsequent pour much easier.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Did I read that right, you did a 5L starter for bottling?

This is what I was wondering about. I guess a 10 gallon batch of quad needs a 5L starter for the actual ferment, but certainly not for bottling.

I don't do big starters. I so small batches of beer and use slurry.

OP: make sure to use 2 carb tabs or drops or whatever for the bigger bottles.

 

[rkausch]

OP Here, thank you for the suggestions! I'm going to take the approach to drop some priming agent into each bottle, to avoid oxidation, as you guys have suggested.

The beer was originally brewed in March, and was racked to secondary in mid-April, where it has "rested" until now. The final ABV came out to (according to beer smith / gravity measurements) 13.4% (OG 1.103 and FG of 1.003 for 10 gallons). I tend to go a bit overboard with yeast sometimes, so perhaps 5L was a bit much, but my thought was that with the high ABV, and extended secondary, there would be absolutely none of the original yeast left in solution.

I'm aiming for higher carbonation (3.5-4 volumes), which led me to grow a larger starter. I'm happy to hear your thoughts on the starter volume for bottling. I've been kegging for a long time with force carbonation, and am only planning on bottling for special brews that need to age for a while (such as this Quad). As such, I've been out of the bottling game for a while (6 or 7 years), and have forgotten many things.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
Rob