Oh crap, I bottled the wrong beer!

[944play]

Went to California for a week, and left two unmarked primary buckets in the fridge. Today I came back and decided to bottle up my Belhaven. Well, too many Plinys and too little sleep over the week kept me from noticing that I pulled my DT bucket out! :cross: Boiled the corn sugar and sanitized the bottles on total autopilot....

So now I have 5 gallons of big, green Belgian beer in longnecks, Belhaven boppers, and Guinness 22s with only 3oz priming sugar! Right now I'm guessing I just have a LONG time to wait for a sorta flat beer that isn't horribly, bitterly green. It just takes longer to age in bottles, but they eventually get there, right? Should I pop them open and add some carbtabs?

Vitalstats:
OG 1.082 FG 1.010 - 88% apparent, 9.4% abv(!)
WLP530 67F for two days then slowly raised to 75F over two weeks (or as close as I can get with swapping ice bottles in a cooler). Cold conditioned at 45F for a week in the primary. Bottled while still cool, 50-55F?

And the hydro sample I just took of the Belhaven is so clean..

 

[david_42]

Adding carbtabs would be a very good idea, but aging time isn't dependent on container size.

 

[IrregularPulse]

AS long as it was done fermenting you should fine. Add carb tabs if you want more carbonation. As stated above. aging will be just fine in bottles vs bulk.

 

[DutchK9]

That sucks. You might want to let that one sit longer than usual before you drink it.

 

[Homercidal]

That stuff is ruined. Ship it to me and I'll dispose of it for you.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I'm closer. I'll pick it up for disposal.

+1 for the carb tabs. I wouldn't want a big flat Belgian.

Put those bottles back until December and you'll be very happy through the holidays.

 

[944play]

Ok, just got some carb tabs and extra caps. I'm thinking three tabs per 12oz should bring it up to almost 3 volumes.

So lame. The plan was to secondary for about a month and then into champagne bottles at 3.5+ volumes. I'll have to be all apologetic when I give these as gif... er, turn them in for disposal.

 

[shecky]

That stuff is ruined. Ship it to me and I'll dispose of it for you.

I thought we were supposed to send everything to Evan!

 

[944play]

Grrr, the carbtabs did not work. I have a flat, sweet, tasty, aromatic beer here. I guess a week in the fridge killed the yeast.

Let's say I was to make a WLP530 starter and use a syringe to add a few drops to each bottle at high kraeusen, speise style. Would it live, and give this beer a head? Would a different yeast be better?

This beer smells exactly like

 

[powerjb]

hold on, you put corn sugar in it, then bottled it, still green. then you opened the bottles, and added 3 carb tabs to each bottle, and resealed. all within a week?

these are going to take like 3 weeks at 70 degrees to be carbed up, but now they have received basically twice the sugar they need.
sorry man, i think in 2 weeks you're going to have 2 cases of bottle bombs..... or green beer at 6 volumes.

but hopefully i'm wrong and it works out perfectly.

EDIT: nevermind, i wasn't paying attention. i still think you need to wait before you'll see the results of the sugar + carb tabs

 

[Brooklyn-Brewtality]

I guess a week in the fridge killed the yeast.

why were they in the fridge?! you want to carb at room temp

 

[Tripod]

Went to California for a week, and left two unmarked primary buckets in the fridge.....

Ah, poor documentation strikes again! This is why everybody says to mark everything and keep logs in notebooks, etc. But, I can understand getting into the auto-pilot zone and wigging out on the the most obvious little thing.

I hope it turns out OK for you...even if it is not what you are expecting! GOOD LUCK!

-Tripod

 

[944play]

hold on, you put corn sugar in it, then bottled it, still green. then you opened the bottles, and added 3 carb tabs to each bottle, and resealed. all within a week?

these are going to take like 3 weeks at 70 degrees to be carbed up, but now they have received basically twice the sugar they need.
sorry man, i think in 2 weeks you're going to have 2 cases of bottle bombs..... or green beer at 6 volumes.

but hopefully i'm wrong and it works out perfectly.

The batch has 3oz dextrose and 3 tabs per bottle, which should be about 3 volumes. If I do have bottle bombs, at least they'll be blowing up inside a cooler! I just think this yeast is dead.

My experience has been that bottle fermentation happens within a day or two, and the rest of the time is for the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. This from feeling a plastic soda bottle (at least one per batch) firm up.

Luckily my 80/- survived the week in the fridge. It's conditioning very nicely.:rockin:

 

[944play]

why were they in the fridge?! you want to carb at room temp

No, I put the primaries in the fridge. A week in Texas summer at ambient temp would not have been good. The 80/- survived, the DT apparently did not.

The DT bottles went into a cooler and I kept them around 70-75F using frozen soda bottles.

Whirlfloc rox. I have my first clear beer, the Belhaven clone!

 

[Zadeun]

i didn't think cold killed yeast... dont you store your yeast packs in the fridge? sounds like they were put to bed not the grave. keep them around 70 -75 and maybe stir them up a bit?

 

[ChshreCat]

I wouldn't want a big flat Belgian.

That's not nice. I had a big flat Belgian once. She was a very sweet girl.