Priming mistake, what results to expect?

[Gauvin]

About two weeks ago I bottled a batch of Cream Ale that had been in the primary for three weeks. This weekend I sat down to bottle a stout and realized that when I measured out the dextrose for the Cream Ale I accidentally used half the required amount. Thinking back on it I thought that it seemed like I was not using enough, but thought that I had used the right amount. My best guess is that I used about 2 to 2 and half ounces of dextrose for a 4.5 gallon batch.

Anyway, I opened up a bottle last night after nine days at 75 degrees and two days in the fridge. Beer was lightly carbonated with absolutely no head. My question is what results can I expect moving forward? Is the beer done carbonating, or can I expect it improve?

Thanks for all the help you guys have been. First batch came out awesome, the Cream Ale color and clarity is perfect, and the stout I just bottled should be amazing. Next up is a Dunkel.

 

[Revvy]

Anyway, I opened up a bottle last night after nine days at 75 degrees and two days in the fridge. Beer was lightly carbonated with absolutely no head. My question is what results can I expect moving forward? Is the beer done carbonating, or can I expect it improve?

Well you're still only a week in the bottle, so there's no telling about head and proteins. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

So you still need to give it a couple more weeks to come up as much as it's going to carb.

I don't know what the OG of your beer is but at half sugar it will be somewhere between 1 and 1.75 volumes of co2, which is going to put it approximately at the level of lightly carbed British Ale. Not discusting by any means, but not too spritzy either.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

You could try opening each bottle and putting carb tabs in them to give your yeast more sugar to eat, then recapping. Just make sure you use about half as many carb tabs as you'd normally use per bottle.

 

[Revvy]

.... Just make sure you use about half as many carb tabs as you'd normally use per bottle.

Yeah if you decide to go this route, this is important, you don't want bottle bombs.

But personally I wouldn't bother, I'd just enjoy the beer at the level it's at.

 

[brian_g]

2 oz of priming sugar = 56 grams

You really need 142 grams. It's going to be very lightly carbonated. If you want to try to fix it you can add Muntons Carbtabs to each bottle and then recap. The normal amount is 4 tabs per 12oz bottle. So adding 3 tabs should get you pretty close.

 

[Gauvin]

Well you're still only a week in the bottle, so there's no telling about head and proteins. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

So you still need to give it a couple more weeks to come up as much as it's going to carb.

I don't know what the OG of your beer is but at half sugar it will be somewhere between 1 and 1.75 volumes of co2, which is going to put it approximately at the level of lightly carbed British Ale. Not discusting by any means, but not too spritzy either.

Yeah I know it's going to be a bit longer, I wanted to open this one as a test bottle and see where we were at after I realized my mistake. I wanted to see if there was something I could do to "save" the batch if needed (knowing I probably couldn't), but considering that I wanted something a little lighter on the carbonation I will simply leave it and see what happens. As far as the tablets thing goes, that just sounds like too much of chance to really mess up the beer.

I will throw one in the fridge on Saturday (that will be two weeks) then open either Thurs/Friday and see what it looks like then.

OG on the beer was 1.058, FG was 1.012.

*edit* and again, I am not exactly sure how much sugar is in there, but based on what I think I happened it would be 2 oz at the low end and probably 3 oz. on the high end. My guess it is right around 2.5, (or 70 grams?), in a 4.5 gallon batch. I think this will put it barely on the drinkable side with a hope that a couple bottles ended up with more sugar than others.

 

[brian_g]

On second thought. How certain are you about the amount of priming sugar? If you don't really have a clue how much you used, then I think your taking a risk by trying to add carb drops. If you think it was 2 oz you'll need about 3 carb tabs, it it was 2.5 oz you'll only use two. But if your just guessing, I don't think there's any way to know how much to add.

 

[Gauvin]

On second thought. How certain are you about the amount of priming sugar? If you don't really have a clue how much you used, then I think your taking a risk by trying to add carb drops. If you think it was 2 oz you'll need about 3 carb tabs, it it was 2.5 oz you'll only use two. But if your just guessing, I don't think there's any way to know how much to add.

Exactly. Right now it is drinkable if a bit undercarbonated. My thinking is it is better off to learn from this and make sure to double check my measuring tools moving forward.

 

[r_flagg]

Exactly. Right now it is drinkable if a bit undercarbonated. My thinking is it is better off to learn from this and make sure to double check my measuring tools moving forward.

Absolutely. Your beer will still be good and it is a good learning experience. It's definitely not ruined due to undercarbonation. Also, you'll be surprised at how much can change in a week, and in a month it should be better than you imagined. Also, when you put your 9 day beer in the fridge and opened it after 2 days, the yeast had already stopped working, so that beer was actually only aged for 7 or 7 1/2 days.

 

[l1ranger]

if its tasty, refreshing and totally drinkable the way it is, why mess with it.

my dunkle hasn't carbed up fully after 2 months, but it tastes great isn't awfully flat, so I'm drinking it anyways.

 

[yodalegomaster]

Don't forget to give the bottles a good rousting-shake, yeast can't move by themselves, even at 2.5 oz of corn sugar they could gain some carbonation by rousting them

 

[Gauvin]

Don't forget to give the bottles a good rousting-shake, yeast can't move by themselves, even at 2.5 oz of corn sugar they could gain some carbonation by rousting them

That I can do!