Just opened my first Home Brew

[kgrant01]

So on 9/3 I made my first batch of Home Brew. A 2.5 gal batch of Bavarian Hefeweizen from a LME. On 9/14 I bottled it. Yesterday, I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed a bottle from the box, put it in the fridge and chilled it for a few hours. Later on that evening my roomie and I split it. I must say, it turned out rather well. The only thing my roomie said that was off was the carbonation. He said he felt it was OVER carbonated while taking smaller sips. I used 5 oz of priming sugar in my bottling bucket. Was that the right amount? It seemed fine to me though. I was very proud.

 

[thughes]

While wheats tend to have a bit higher carb levels, you used an amount of priming sugar sufficient for a 5 gallon batch. That might explain your friend's comment as to the beer being a bit over-carbonated. There are other factors, such as how long did you chill it before opening? (A period of proper chilling is usually necessary for the CO2 to dissolve into solution more readily.) Also, 6 days in the bottle is not enough time to guage any amount of carbonation properly (takes at least 2-3 weeks, sometimes much longer, to carb up properly).

Bottom line? 5oz sugar to prime 5 gallons of beer, that amount is too much for half that volume of beer. BUT......as long as YOU enjoy it and you don't end up with bottle bombs, that's all that really matters. Congrats on your first brew!

 

[OldStyler]

Actually I think that might be a little too much for a 2.5 gallon batch. Which explains why you've got lots of bubbles fairly early in your bottle conditioning. So long as you don't have grenades, you'll just have fizzy beer! Not the worst thing to happen... Congrats!

 

[TheMan]

It's very likely that as other have said, you didn't actually have disolved C02 in the beer. You just had foamy somewhat carbed beer. When starting out it is tough to discern between the two. Wait another 2 weeks before you make your official judgement on the beer.

Lastly, Hefe's have relatively high carbonation...It's kind of hard to overcarb them. My guess is it's fine.

 

[kgrant01]

I may have only used 2.5 oz then. My LHBS told me the priming sugar bag was for a 5 gal batch, so I only used half.

 

[dnslater]

I have noticed that bottles opened early in the priming process can by fizzy. Let prime for 2-3 weeks total and then chill for a minimum of 24 hours and all will probably be fine. When you open after chilling for just a few hours the gas is not properly absorbed by the solution and tends to rush out, giving you a foamy head.

 

[rhamilton]

I'm bottling my first batch this weekend -- can't wait to try my first homebrew

 

[TopherM]

The true Bavarian Hefeweizen style actually has a ton of carbonation. A typical ale or lager has something like 2.5-3.0 volumes of CO2, while a Hefe calls for over 4.0. Anyway, check out the calculator below. According to this, your 2.5 gallons called for about 4.3 ounces of priming sugar for proper bottle carbonation to style.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Of course, after one week, your beer is not done carbonating. It takes 2-3 weeks minimum, as someone else said.

Also, CO2 will fill the headspace of the bottle first, and really needs to be cold for 2-3 days to absorb all of the CO2 from the headspace into the solution. This is probably what your friend was tasting. Lots of carbonation in the head, but not much in the actual beer.

So let it sit for another week or two at room temp in the bottles, then also give it 2-3 days in the fridge before you open them.