ready to bottle-already carbonated?

[impulsoren]

Hi. First post here. I'm not an expert brewer but have made enough batches over the years that I have lost count. I have a situation I have never encountered before.
I recently made a light "American beer" for summer inebriation.
It spent 11 days in primary at low 50s with lager yeast. OG 1.030, FG 1.019-a little higher than I expected but it didn't go anywhere for the last 4 days. Its been in secondary for 9 days at mid-to-high 50s (finally getting summer temps in the garage). I checked the FG a few more times just to make sure it was completely done because it was higher than I expected, it is steady at 1.019.
Tasted the beer each time I checked gravity, it is completely clear and tastes...well...kinda like I made budweiser.
The problem is it is almost completely carbonated in the secondary. It even makes a head in the hydrometer vessel. There are bubbles rising from the sides and bottom of the carboy but the water level in the lock doesn't move. I'd like to bottle it this week.

Do I add sugar and hope it isn't over-carbonated?
Not add sugar and hope it doesn't go flat in bottles?
Or let it sit a while longer? I'd really like to start drinking this in late July.

 

[Loweface]

To me it sounds like its still fermenting but has an gas leak? But you mention that you did several hydro readings... Were they all the same?

 

[impulsoren]

steady at 1.019.

It's been that way since the primary.
It gives every sign of still fermenting but the gravity stays the same.

 

[Revvy]

You might be stuck at 1.019. Or you might have been stuck and now it's re started.

Give the fermenter a Slight swirl (or actually just lift it up and set it down) to rerouse the yeast....Maybe wrap a blanket around it to slightly warm it up a bit to see if you can get down a few more points....check it on Sunday...and again on Monday...THen maybe you can bottle Tuesday or Wednesday and have it ready for the last week of July.

 

[Bobby_M]

There might be a little CO2 dissolved or suspended, but it wouldn't be anywhere near what you'd expect a final carb to be (1-3 volumes). At room temp, you'd need like 30psi in the carboy for that.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

When you calculate how much priming sugar to use, you should be taking the amount of carbonation already in the beer at atmospheric pressure into account. Beersmith allows you to do this, and I'm sure other software packages do as well. Because your beer is in the 50's, it's going to have more CO2 in it than it would if it were in the high 60's - therefore, you will likely need to use a bit less priming sugar than usual to bring it up to the final carbonation level.

 

[impulsoren]

I am going to swirl then it on it for a while I guess. Then use the calculator to determine the amount of sugar to use.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[impulsoren]

Well I waited a while, bottled it with a little less than 3/4 cup corn sugar. 4 days into bottling I got my first bomb ever! Put on the welding apron/gloves/face shield, moved them all into coolers with a bunch of ice hoping to decrease the pressure and halt more CO2 production. After they were cold, I opened one to see and it wasn't even fully carbonated.

I guess I'll plan on that one broken bottle having been damaged in some way, and leave the rest in the cooler but at room temp to carbonate some more but be contained if they start to explode!