oldwinemaker
Active Member
I'm brewing from a kit and the instructions say the final gravity should be 1.016. My question is. Is it safe to assume the lower the final gravity, the lesser of a chance of getting bottle bombs?
Final gravity is when all of your fermentable sugars have been processed by your yeasties. So there should only be one final gravity, and it is very easily calculable for extract brews. But once your gravity has stabilized for a few days, you're usually there (unless the you dropped the temp down to 33dF or something and put your yeast to sleep).
Bottle bombs are usually caused by too much sugar when you prime (add more sugar to the beer before bottling so the yeast carbonate your bottles), but sometimes people bottle too soon so they get the co2 from the priming sugar, as well as from the left over fermentables = too much pressure and exploding bottles.
I would say, once you think you've hit your FG, give the beer another week in the fermenter (the yeast will reabsorb and lessen the off flavors) and you'll be completely sure you've hit your desired FG.
What is "too much" sugar? I ask because I recently added sugar for 5 gallons to a 4-4.5 gallon batch. Is that enough to cause bombs?
What is "too much" sugar? I ask because I recently added sugar for 5 gallons to a 4-4.5 gallon batch. Is that enough to cause bombs?
J187 said:What level of carbonation were you trying to get into your beer with the calculations? "sugar for 5 gallons" doesn't really tell us much, 5 gallons worth of sugar for 1.5 vols of carb is much different than 4 galls worth for 3.5 vols.
I wasn't really targeting a certain level. I am pretty new to brewing and 4.5 oz of dextrose is what the LHBS gives you when you purchase a kit. When my batch came up a little under I didn't even think to adjust how much sugar to use. I am not sure what the volumes refer to or how they work but basically I used 4.5 oz for about 4.25 gallons and am kind of worried a bunch of the bottles will burst
I wasn't really targeting a certain level. I am pretty new to brewing and 4.5 oz of dextrose is what the LHBS gives you when you purchase a kit. When my batch came up a little under I didn't even think to adjust how much sugar to use. I am not sure what the volumes refer to or how they work but basically I used 4.5 oz for about 4.25 gallons and am kind of worried a bunch of the bottles will burst
To answer both questions, I mixed the sugar into water and it was an oatmeal stout. I've had a few since I bottled it about 6 weeks ago. It's definitely carbonated more than I would like, but it wasn't ruined either. Until that batch it didn't even occur to me to try carbing to style so I used a calculator for my last batch. It's a little more work but it makes it more entertaining.
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