I think I bottled my big beer WAY too soon...

[drinkinfool]

Appreciated.

 

[Psycotte]

No problem. You could if you wanted uncap one at a week in the bottle and check it. If it seems really carbonated you could then choose to uncap each one which will degas and relieve the pressure and then recap them with sanitized fresh caps.

 

[fartinmartin]

Drinkinfool I suppose you should ask the army , they must ask themselves that all the time "will my bombs go off ?" Lol

 

[jrgtr42]

I just bottled and am suddenly very worried I may have created 35 bottle bombs rather than 35 bottles of beer.

I got everything going in the fermenter and waited six days to check the gravity, it went down the recommended amount, from 1.040 to 1.030 and had been bubbling a LOT less than days prior. I had kept it above 70*F and it was really going for the first five days or so.

My question is, did I bottle dangerously early? I can't seem to get a consensus here, I see a week here and two weeks elsewhere all the way up to a month and even three months... I don't want a dangerous situation on my hands is all. Advice GREATLY appreciated.

What the heck are you brewing that the gravity went down only 10 points?!?!?
I would think that any brew starting at 1.040 should get down around 1.010 for a final gravity.
70* is a bit high for most beers, the yeast generally prefer ambient temps around low to mid 60s, but you'll still end up with beer.
I personally allow at MINIMUM 2 weeks for fermentation and clean up to happen, I find I get better beer after 3 weeks.
I've seen a lot of beginner kits that talk about a week here, a week there, implying that you are ready to drink in 2 weeks... really a decent beer needs at least twice that. The yeast themselves will tell you when they're done, especially if you have a hydrometer.
My procedure is that after the wort is pitched and into my fermentation area, I will check it the next morning, evening and the following morning to make sure things are happening, then I forget about it until roughly 18 to 21 days after brew. I will check the gravity, then seal it back up and come back in 2 or 3 more days. If the gravity is the same, then I will bottle. I mostly use bombers, but I do a couple 12 oz bottles as testers. I'll open one of those 2 to 3 weeks after brewing to see how it's coming, and go from there. Sometimes it's ready to drink, sometimes it needs another week or 2.

 

[Cider123]

Many of these kits offer lousy advice. If you started at 1.040, you should be going much lower than 1.030 and probably be in the 1.012-1.016 range. I'm sorry but it is not you. Your learning and should have been given better advice.

You basically should allow fermentation to continue until you get the same FG for 3 days in a row. Usually this will take about 2 weeks although I leave mine sit for 3 weeks.

I would follow the advice of checking a bottle every other day. Once they begin to overcarb and foam out of the bottles then you are going into dangerous territory. At that point I would start popping caps open. And yes, the will often bust rather than pop their caps, making a mess of broken glass and beer.

I would suggest getting a copy of Palmer's "How to Brew" and do some reading from a good source before your next brew. Give it another try. Once you got it going, you'll be happy you stuck with it.

 

[Hello]

1.040 to 1.030 is hardly finished and it hardly had the chance to ferment.

 

[mkfarris2]

You've gotten some good advice. If it were me, I would put them in cardboard boxes or Tupperware containers and put them in a closet. Every 3-4 days, I would crack one, see how far along they are on the fermentation, and when they got to a good carb level, throw them in my beer fridge. At that point, you're going to slow down the speed of the yeasties. I would probably drink them fairly quickly. Is the beer going to be a little "green"? Yes. Is it beer? Yes. Chalk that one up to experience, and in the future, put it in the primary and don't even take a reading for 10 days. But that's just me. Good Luck!

 

[fartinmartin]

I've now had a giggle, mocked a bit and thought about it.
You are in a place I don't want to be re safety.
I suggest you empty your bottles into an FV add half a packet of yeast, a bag of hops (1oz) and ferment it out to less than 1.006. Then prime and bottle again.

Radical, yes
Safe, yes
You can still get a good beer from this, and a terrific learning tale
Good luck.

 

[hlm123]

To add to the alarm: infections can create bottle bombs under almost any conditions. When I first started brewing I tried fermenting some apple juice and didn't bother to sanitize the bottles I bottled it in. When I opened them two (of the four) came gushing out with pink foam. The thing that worries me is that it seems like a bottle would be most likely to burst is when being handled and having some pressure applied to take the cap off. Or it may be the case that this level of agitation would have only a tiny effect on the internal pressure of the bottle.

 

[drinkinfool]

Thanks for your support and advice, all. I appreciate it as I really didn't want bottles blowing up in my tiny Scottish apartment given that I would probably lose my deposit and then some...

So, what I did was, for all the bottles I was 100% sure were totally safe--just had bought and were sanitized before use--I emptied them back out into the primary fermenter. I added 250 grams of hops and half an envelope of yeast. The other bottles--the ones I emptied and cleaned myself, the more suspect for "infection"--I am going to monitor and uncap/recap if necessary.

As had been said, not the *best* options, as I could have avoided this with more patience and better directions, but it will still salvage some beer and keep me a bit safer, haha.

Also took them out of the closet and they're fermenting in the hallway at 20-24*C and about 65*C.

Seriously, thanks for the advice, especially the more thorough stuff. Really appreciate it, folks.

I will keep you all in the loop about the final product

 

[drinkinfool]

So, more advice, more learning--right?

Now that I've got half a tank (12 liters/2.5ish US gallons) worth of beer with one and a half packs of yeast and priming sugar added, how long should I let this stuff sit around? Three weeks, a month?

Also, should I hop again in time, or before bottling (originally a pale ale "recipe"--malt extract kit...)

When should I check gravities? ETC. ETC. ETC....

I've only brewed twice--this being my second and far more blundering time and never had to do so much fixing before, so I dunno if there's anything that should or could be done to salvage this all the better...

Any thoughts on this, as always, greatly appreciated!

 

[fartinmartin]

You are in order now, continue as a normal brew, that is watch for fermentation, that's bubbles and airlock activity, when the airlock appears to be doing nothing wait at least another week or two, only then take an SG test, after a few more days take another SG test, if the readings are not the same wait some more, if the reading are not in the region of 1.010 (better still 1.006) wait, if they are cold crash for a few days to settle out then bottle.

 

[ja09]

So, more advice, more learning--right?

Now that I've got half a tank (12 liters/2.5ish US gallons) worth of beer with one and a half packs of yeast and priming sugar added, how long should I let this stuff sit around? Three weeks, a month?

Also, should I hop again in time, or before bottling (originally a pale ale "recipe"--malt extract kit...)

When should I check gravities? ETC. ETC. ETC....

I've only brewed twice--this being my second and far more blundering time and never had to do so much fixing before, so I dunno if there's anything that should or could be done to salvage this all the better...

Any thoughts on this, as always, greatly appreciated!

Did you uncap and pour the beer back in the fermenter? There's not really any way to do this successfully without introducing too much oxygen into the beer, which will cause a wet cardboard taste when it's finished. If so I would just call it quits on this batch and start fresh.

On a positive note, it sounds like you've learned a lot from this batch, which is a great thing!

 

[drinkinfool]

Did you uncap and pour the beer back in the fermenter? There's not really any way to do this successfully without introducing too much oxygen into the beer, which will cause a wet cardboard taste when it's finished. If so I would just call it quits on this batch and start fresh.

On a positive note, it sounds like you've learned a lot from this batch, which is a great thing!

You ain't kidding... I have learned a lot of valuable and equally annoying lessons, haha.

I have some in bottles... and I am refermenting this half, you don't think it'll work out? I feared it was too much an aerobic respiration yeast trap...

 

[Minky]

Hi drinkinfool,
The beer you left in the bottles may actually be OK. If your gravity was 1.040 to start, and you had an active fermentation, I seriously doubt that it only dropped 10 points. Are you sure that you read 1.030 on your hydrometer and not 1.003? Depending on your ingredients, it could have dropped that much.

Unfortunately, ja09 is right about the oxidation of the other half.