oooppss, put dme right in bottling bucket

[ndhowlett]

I assume I messed up royaly. I had a temporary out of body experience and right before putting my normal dissolved 3/4 cup corn sugar in my bottling bucket I convinced myself to go with DME. But.... I put 1 cup directly into my beer without dissolving it.

I'm almost positive it's not going to be the end for the beer, but it will probably effect carbonation. I gently stirred the brew to help it dissolve.

I know I'm an idiot, I just want someone to tell me everything will be o.k.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Get it back into secondary, raise the temp a bit, wait for a few hours or more of good carboy activity. Once the CO2 has pushed the air out, shake the hell out of the carboy to get the yeast moving and help dissolve the DME. I'm guessing the best course of action would put you back a month.

There are easier and less difficult approaches, but bottle bombs really scare me!

 

[ndhowlett]

Already bottled. Really not scared though because DME is a regular method of carbonating beer. I'm assuming it's dissolved before adding to the bottling bucket, right. My guess is that it will be slightly weaker than a dissolved or boiled DME primer.

Yea? Neah?

 

[roofman70]

dme clumps up when it hits water
if it wasnt disolved enough you will prob get different amounts of sugars per bottle wich will lead to some over carbed and some not carbed and some ok if your lucky

 

[ndhowlett]

I did my best to get the clumps out by using a strainer, and very carefully watched the beer coming through the hose to see if any clumps were there. I stirred gently for a bit to try and find any remaining clumps.

I learned a lesson on this one. Breaks my heart because right before I did this I bottled a Tripel no problem, but used corn sugar and belgian clear candi as called for in the recipie.

 

[Mr Nick]

Wow!!!!
Listen up here....You were given good advice....by Sir Humpsalot

 

[malkore]

Get it back into secondary, raise the temp a bit, wait for a few hours or more of good carboy activity. Once the CO2 has pushed the air out, shake the hell out of the carboy to get the yeast moving and help dissolve the DME. I'm guessing the best course of action would put you back a month.

There are easier and less difficult approaches, but bottle bombs really scare me!

the only issue with this, is how do you know that enough CO2 has been produced, so your shaking isn't just ruining the beer with oxidation?

there's not a lot of activity in secondary, even with a cup of DME added.

i'm sure there are ways to calculate the CO2 bubblign from the airlock, headspace in secondary, to find out how many hours are needed to purge enough air that shaking wouldn't matter too much.
but I suspect at the slow rate its going, you'd be looking at a couple of days, not hours, to purge all that headspace, which means you'd have to re-prime some of the DME or you'll get under-carb'd beer.

 

[ndhowlett]

Like I said before the damage is already done, the beer is in the bottle. Will it be alright? Probably just under carbonated, or lightly carbonated?

 

[Yooper]

Well 1 cup DME isn't much, if I use DME, I use 1.25 cups for regular carbonation. So, if it dissolved well, it'll just be a tad undercarbed

The bit concern here is that it wasn't dissolved well and stirred in well. So you might have some bottles totally uncarbed and some that are overcarbed to the point of bottle bombs. That is the big worry.

 

[ndhowlett]

I stirred it in really well, to the point were all the clumps were dissolved or removed. It was under 5 gallons as well, I almost made 2 cases of beer. I really think everything will be o.k. because the dormant yeast have something to eat and I dissolved it pretty well. Also I didn't get a full 5 gallons.

All I can do it wait, I'll post in three weeks to let everyone know how it is.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

More important than how this turns out, we learned something today:

Boil some water, dissolve your priming sugar/DME in it, let it cool, and mix that solution into your ready-to-be-bottled beer.

Or use Carb Tabs.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

More important than how this turns out, we learned something today:

Boil some water, dissolve your priming sugar/DME in it, let it cool, and mix that solution into your ready-to-be-bottled beer.

Or use Carb Tabs.

That's good advice, Yuri.

And my apologies to the original poster. I thought he wanted help. My mistake. Turns out he just wanted everybody to tell him it will be ok.... So I won't discuss why a slight risk of oxidation is better than an exploding bottle in your hand sending shards of glass into your fingers. That would be a waste of time. So, since I'm in the holiday spirit...

It'll be ok... Just keep those bottles in a tupperware container, handle them with something over your hand to protect you from exploding glass. Also, you kept saying that you made less than 5 gallons of beer, it sounded like that was one of your justifications for not having to worry, but simple math tells that that when you make less beer, you actually have more priming sugar, not less, per bottle... And finally, the most important thing of all is...

Oh wait, there I go giving advice again. Don't worry. Everything will be fine. :: patting you on your head:: (That's what you wanted to hear, right?)


EDIT TO ADD: Now that the smart-ass portion of my post is done, let me just say we've all had our screw-ups and bad batches. I'm sorry for your mistake. It sucks, but it happens. I'm sure most of your bottles will be fine. Probably they all will. Maybe not though. That's all I'm saying about that.

Anyway, drink them young (if you were patient and let it bulk condition in the secondary for an extended time, the beer could be quite tasty the minute it's got some carbonation on it). Also, I am guessing it's too late to suggest you keep track of which bottles you bottled first and last? The last bottles probably have the most priming sugar.

Good luck.

 

[ndhowlett]

That's good advice, Yuri.

And my apologies to the original poster. I thought he wanted help. My mistake. Turns out he just wanted everybody to tell him it will be ok.... So I won't discuss why a slight risk of oxidation is better than an exploding bottle in your hand sending shards of glass into your fingers. That would be a waste of time. So, since I'm in the holiday spirit...

It'll be ok... Just keep those bottles in a tupperware container, handle them with something over your hand to protect you from exploding glass. Also, you kept saying that you made less than 5 gallons of beer, it sounded like that was one of your justifications for not having to worry, but simple math tells that that when you make less beer, you actually have more priming sugar, not less, per bottle... And finally, the most important thing of all is...

Oh wait, there I go giving advice again. Don't worry. Everything will be fine. :: patting you on your head:: (That's what you wanted to hear, right?)


EDIT TO ADD: Now that the smart-ass portion of my post is done, let me just say we've all had our screw-ups and bad batches. I'm sorry for your mistake. It sucks, but it happens. I'm sure most of your bottles will be fine. Probably they all will. Maybe not though. That's all I'm saying about that.

Anyway, drink them young (if you were patient and let it bulk condition in the secondary for an extended time, the beer could be quite tasty the minute it's got some carbonation on it). Also, I am guessing it's too late to suggest you keep track of which bottles you bottled first and last? The last bottles probably have the most priming sugar.

Good luck.

Yes it does suck, and all I'm looking for is help (why would I was my time posting). The "everything will be fine" was my guess, because usually I get the RDWHAHB answer when I freak out.

You're not a very good instructor are you? Your a senior member, and have alot more knowledge than me about making quality beer, but you are not very good at passing that advice down. Please when giving advice please be clear and concise.

Back to being mature adults..........

I have already bottled my beer. Going off you previous suggestion should I crack open all the bottles and put it in a carboy? I am worried about bottle bombs, and will take any action to resolve this including throwing the brew away (for safety sake).

Any other opinions

 

[eddie]

DME is less fermentable than either dextrose or table sugar so you should use more DME anyway if you're going to prime with it. It's better to use weight versus volume when measuring but 1 cup of DME sounds about right for a five gallon batch when you consider that 5 oz of dex comes to about 3/4 cup. I think you'll be fine. Just to err on the safe(r) side, store them under 70 for conditioning for three weeks then try your first bottle. You might want to put a box over them too just in case (which isn't a bad idea anyway.)

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Oh good god man, do NOT throw the beer away!!!!!!

Anyway, I will go back and re-read my posts, make sure they aren't as devoid of good advice as you claim they are.

Yes, I would slowly, carefully, without making bubbles, pour the beer back into a bulk container, let it ferment out, then reprime. It'll set you back a couple of weeks and fifty-cents' worth of bottle caps and starsan. Are you in a hurry?

One thing I just thought of is to wait about 4 days for a little bit of carbonation to build in the bottles. That way when you transfer back to the carboy, you will have some CO2 absorbed and it can purge the air out of the headspace.


WRT Eddie's post above, it's not bad advice either. Don't confuse the number of posts with the level of knowledge. I have a low signal-to-noise ratio. ;-) Anyway, his suggestion isn't bad. Not that this will help you at all, but I'm sure 90% of your bottles will be absolutely fine or, at worst, undercarbed. It's just those other couple of bottles that worry me...

 

[Yuri_Rage]

At this point, leave it alone. I doubt the DME is so concentrated in any given bottle to create a bottle bomb. However, it might be wise to store them in a Rubbermaid container or in a guest bathtub for the next week or so...just in case.

 

[ndhowlett]

Thanks for the advice, I'll put it in a rubermaid container.

My gut tells me it will be fine. I did my first brew and for some reason only got about 3 1/2 gallons out of it. With my limited knowledge I primed it with a full 3/4 cup of corn sugar (boiled for ten minutes with two cups of water of course, ha ha). The 3/4 cup would be fine for a full 5 gallons, but if I could go back I would have taken a little corn sugar out. The brew turned out really really good. Really think that it was dissolved well, but we'll see.

Thanks again for all the advice, and I'll let you know how it turns out (especially Sir Humpsalot and Yuri).

 

[FSR402]

I think you will be fine. Most will more then likely be under carbed and some may be a little over carbed but I doubt you will have bombs.
Putting them in the rubbermaid is a good way to go and handle them with care until you are sure you are safe. Wear gloves and chill them well before opening. If after a month you have not found any that are way over carbed I would say you are safe.
Enjoy the brew and don't do that again.