Priming Fail Help

[ptrfishing]

Hello all. Before I launch any explosive experiments, I thought I’d seek some advice from you here on HBT.

I brewed another batch of Biermuncher’s porter (all-grain), which is a huge hit with friends and family. All went great as usual. On bottling day, I had everything prepared and batch primed 5.25 gal in the bottling bucket with 4.7oz corn sugar. Then a weird and unrelated thing happened to me. Got ill, blood pressure bottomed out and I passed out. The primed beer sat in the loosely covered bottling bucket for 36-48 hrs. I then went ahead and bottled instead of throwing it away.

Today, over three weeks after bottling, I tested one expecting it to be flat. Bingo…..hardly a trace of carbonation. So my question: is it effective or worthwhile to go back through and prime each bottle? I’ve never tried this, but I’ve heard it doesn’t work well. Any opinions or guidance?

 

[Yooper]

Hello all. Before I launch any explosive experiments, I thought I’d seek some advice from you here on HBT.

I brewed another batch of Biermuncher’s porter (all-grain), which is a huge hit with friends and family. All went great as usual. On bottling day, I had everything prepared and batch primed 5.25 gal in the bottling bucket with 4.7oz corn sugar. Then a weird and unrelated thing happened to me. Got ill, blood pressure bottomed out and I passed out. The primed beer sat in the loosely covered bottling bucket for 36-48 hrs. I then went ahead and bottled instead of throwing it away.

Today, over three weeks after bottling, I tested one expecting it to be flat. Bingo…..hardly a trace of carbonation. So my question: is it effective or worthwhile to go back through and prime each bottle? I’ve never tried this, but I’ve heard it doesn’t work well. Any opinions or guidance?

Oh, yes do it! The easiest way is probably to buy those carbonation drops or carb tabs. Pop the bottle, drop one or two in (whatever the package "dosage" is), and recap. It's easier than trying to add priming sugar individually (although you could do that as well, if you knew how much to add like 3/4 teaspoon per bottle or something).

 

[ptrfishing]

Oh, yes do it! The easiest way is probably to buy those carbonation drops or carb tabs. Pop the bottle, drop one or two in (whatever the package "dosage" is), and recap. It's easier than trying to add priming sugar individually (although you could do that as well, if you knew how much to add like 3/4 teaspoon per bottle or something).

Thanks for the quick response! The tabs are definitely the easy way to go for this. I'll get some and give it a whirl.

 

[daveMN]

I like the tablet kind of carb drops instead of the ones that looks like throat lozenges. The lozenges get stuck together the first time you use them and turn into a sugar ball.

 

[ptrfishing]

I like the tablet kind of carb drops instead of the ones that looks like throat lozenges. The lozenges get stuck together the first time you use them and turn into a sugar ball.

Thanks for the input. I think my LHBS has those Brewers Best Conditioning Tablets and the Drops. Gonna make a run there and grab some tablets.

 

[ptrfishing]

Re-primed with 7 pellets per 22oz bottle Waiting for the b-bombs,

 

[VladOfTrub]

The beer would have carbed up, three weeks wasn't long enough to wait.
In essence, when you added sugar you did something that isn't unusual. You performed a type of second fermentation event and instead of using wort (spiese) to "feed" the yeast, you used sugar. However, the sugar used was a type of simple sugar.
When beer is brewed with a better brewing method than the grain soaking method, it doesn't need to be artificially carbed with CO2 or sugar. The single temperature method does not produce the sugar needed for second fermentation or for the aging cycle. For that reason, a second fermentation vessel isn't needed to make home made styles of beer. If Porter has to be artificially primed, it lacks the sugar needed to create Porter. There are a couple of other types of sugar needed to produce Porter. However, when the single temperature brewing method is used the starch which enzymes release sugar from is not utilized. The starch is heat resistant and the temperature used during single step mashing is not high enough to burst the starch. The starch is responsible for producing body in beer. The starch ends up in the compost pile.
So, two things, BeirMunch Porter does not require body and home brewers do not mind throwing money into the compost pile to produce the Porter.

 

[Yooper]

I have no idea what you are saying, but the beer won't carb up even in a hundred years if there is no priming, either via krausening or sugar.

In order to get a fully fermented beer to carbonate in the bottle, some additional fermentables must be added.

 

[chickypad]

The beer would have carbed up, three weeks wasn't long enough to wait.
In essence, when you added sugar you did something that isn't unusual. You performed a type of second fermentation event and instead of using wort (spiese) to "feed" the yeast, you used sugar. However, the sugar used was a type of simple sugar.
When beer is brewed with a better brewing method than the grain soaking method, it doesn't need to be artificially carbed with CO2 or sugar. The single temperature method does not produce the sugar needed for second fermentation or for the aging cycle. For that reason, a second fermentation vessel isn't needed to make home made styles of beer. If Porter has to be artificially primed, it lacks the sugar needed to create Porter. There are a couple of other types of sugar needed to produce Porter. However, when the single temperature brewing method is used the starch which enzymes release sugar from is not utilized. The starch is heat resistant and the temperature used during single step mashing is not high enough to burst the starch. The starch is responsible for producing body in beer. The starch ends up in the compost pile.
So, two things, BeirMunch Porter does not require body and home brewers do not mind throwing money into the compost pile to produce the Porter.

Whoa, read that through 3 times and I'm still not getting it. You're not using Google translate by any chance, are you?

 

[ptrfishing]

Whoa, read that through 3 times and I'm still not getting it. You're not using Google translate by any chance, are you?

Ok.......I'm not tracking with Vlad's post either. Not sure exactly what he's talking about, but I do know that the first 7-8 times I brewed Biermuncher's porter it came out fantastic.

And this time.....thanks to the good advice here, I saved this batch with the conditioning tabs! Drinking one now and it is awesome

Thanks again for the help :rockin: