sugar quantity mistake in priming.....

[Toto's]

hello guys, I did a stipid mistake i was buttleing my white beer and i ended up putting 550g table sugar for a 19L batch. That is a quantity for a 19 Gallons it should have been 150g..... so now.... uncap every bottle and put back into fermenter? hello oxydation!!! For sure it will be a stronger beer now!!! is there any other solution beside leave it there and watch the beer festival lol.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I have no suggestions on how to save this but to save yourself and others those caps need to come off asap

 

[kh54s10]

Definitely uncap the bottles!! If not they ARE GOING TO EXPLODE!!!!! I guess you could leave the tops loose on the top of the bottles until the sugar ferments out then re-prime each bottle individually.

Getting the beers back into the fermenter will almost certainly oxidize the beer.

 

[JimRausch]

Tough one- If you pour the bottles back in the fermenter, you're apt to increase oxidation. But if you leave the bottles, you'll have bottle bombs for sure.
Perhaps you could add a Camden tab to the fermenter to act as an oxygen scavenger. It won't be enough to stun the yeast, but may cut down on oxidation.

 

[LostHopper]

I would live with an oxidized batch given the alternatives. Don't we learn from our mistakes?

 

[kh54s10]

I would live with an oxidized batch given the alternatives. Don't we learn from our mistakes?

I guess that would depend on how oxidized it gets. It could easily be undrinkable.... But yes, you probably will learn from this mistake whether you can save the beer or not.

 

[ncbrewer]

I guess you could leave the tops loose on the top of the bottles until the sugar ferments out then re-prime each bottle individually.

I had a lot of flat and oxidized beer when I had a capper problem. Evidently the leakage that let the CO2 out, later let air in after the pressure was gone. You might have the same problem when you leave the caps on loose, but I bet it wouldn't be near as bad as putting the beer back into the fermenter. So I agree with kh54s10 - leave the caps loose, then re-prime. Then drink it quickly to minimize oxidation effects.

 

[Toto's]

well i opened 1 bottle and the taste is great and start already to be a little carbonated.... i will try to let them like that for 1 or 2 more days and then open another one. when the carbonation will be strong i was thinking to open them all leave them there for an hour or two and re bottle them ... would that work in your opinion?

 

[ncbrewer]

well i opened 1 bottle and the taste is great and start already to be a little carbonated.... i will try to let them like that for 1 or 2 more days and then open another one. when the carbonation will be strong i was thinking to open them all leave them there for an hour or two and re bottle them ... would that work in your opinion?

I wouldn't wait. There could be some difference in temperature within your bottles that are conditioning, hence difference in the rate of carbonation. You could have some really serious bottle bombs.

 

[Andrew7447]

Hell no, id have them bottles outside. Throw a huge party now and drink up~!

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

well i opened 1 bottle and the taste is great and start already to be a little carbonated.... i will try to let them like that for 1 or 2 more days and then open another one. when the carbonation will be strong i was thinking to open them all leave them there for an hour or two and re bottle them ... would that work in your opinion?

It is my opinion that this is a REALLY bad idea. I don't think you understand how dangerous those bottles are right now. Try to imagine thousand of tiny (and not so tiny) shards of glass flying through the air at very high speeds. This is what you are headed for.

 

[Velnerj]

Uncap all bottles, fit them with balloons (and tape? To hold pressure) Pour 1-2 bottles into 0.5l plastic soda bottle. cap it and watch it like a hawk. Open it regularly to release pressure. When the soda bottle takes 2-3 days to firm up (you could take a gravity reading here) you could probably recap the bottles. It'll probably take 4-7 days for this process depending on your yeast and recipe.

Alternative is to let them all ferment out with the balloons then add sugar to each bottle and recap.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Don't be like this guy:



Be like this guy:

 

[Jayjay1976]

Measure twice, prime once. Also, measuring the priming sugar is one area of brewing where using a precision scale with ~1g resolution is essential.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Take all the caps off and put plastic wrap (saran wrap/glad wrap) over each bottle. Re-prime and cap in two weeks.

 

[Toto's]

i put them into a buckets with lid and down into basement at 12 degrees so it should slow down the fermentation.... will re-bottle.... and drink drink drink.... men its really unfortunate to make a mistake like that.... will bottle my dunkel beer next monday ... for sure will not do the same mistake!!!!
thank you all for your advice... will let you know how it ended up

 

[Jayjay1976]

i put them into a buckets with lid and down into basement at 12 degrees so it should slow down the fermentation.... will re-bottle.... and drink drink drink.... men its really unfortunate to make a mistake like that.... will bottle my dunkel beer next monday ... for sure will not do the same mistake!!!!
thank you all for your advice... will let you know how it ended up

Would that be 12F or 12C? One is too cold, the other likely too warm. You might want to put them in a fridge at 40F/4.5C to really slow them down enough that you can enjoy them before they become too pressurized.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

i put them into a buckets with lid and down into basement at 12 degrees so it should slow down the fermentation.... will re-bottle.... and drink drink drink.... men its really unfortunate to make a mistake like that.... will bottle my dunkel beer next monday ... for sure will not do the same mistake!!!!
thank you all for your advice... will let you know how it ended up

Do you mean you've put the bottles in a bucket with lid, or you've tipped the beer out of the bottles into a bucket with a lid? If they're still in bottles, why are you saying 'will re-bottle'? If you've tipped out into a bucket, why are you wanting to slow fermentation?

As JayJay1976 said, 12C won't be cold enough to stop fermentation once it has started.

 

[kh54s10]

If you leave the bottles capped cold temperatures will slow/stop fermentation until they warm up again... Then you still have the same problem.

The videos above show two guys who detected the problem in time or did not over prime to the extent that the pressure exceeded the strength of the bottles.

You must release the pressure. If you wait you are playing Russian Roulette. You cannot be certain that one (or all) out of the many bottles might explode.



In a search I found videos of people opening bottles and the beer spewing out. This is not really a bottle bomb, overcarbonated, yes.. But they could easily become bombs if more fermentation happened exceeding the strength of the bottle.

 

[Toto's]

I am slowing down the fermentation so i have more time because yesterday i did not had the time.
Yes i know i am delaying but not stopping the fermentation. Will open them all in a few days, leave them open for a few hours, re bottle and sacrifice and drink a beer every 2-3 days.... if i see they start to be over carbonated will re open all beers again until i drink them all!!! I put them into a bucket so if they explode .... the explosion and the beer will be contained so safe and easy to clean.... maybe if the carbonation i find its good enough will try to put them into the fridge so at 4c Celsius yeast should stop or almost....
kh54s10, i will watch the video as soon i have a few minutes
, thank you

 

[Toto's]

I found this video...


11:23
How to Fix an Overcarbonated Beer
YouTube · brewbeeranddrinkit

I will give it a try sounds to me a nice klean method, only thing i will have to do that for long period of time .... talking about weeks!!!! Doing that every 2-3 days and drinking so lower the workload lol
Will keep you informed how it went

 

[ncbrewer]

The carbonation in the video had apparently stabilized - your will keep increasing for a while. I'd suggest using protective gear while handling these bottles.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Please dont hold the bottle up to your face while doing this as he demonstrates in the video.

 

[TwistedGray]

To be clear - you asked for recommendations for how to solve your problem. All of the recommendations are to open the caps (every single recommendation has you removing the cap or at least opening it up) yet you choose to ignore everyone's advice and do it your way.

All that I ask, is that you take videos and pictures of any mess that you have to clean up due to you ignoring everyone's advice. Maybe the next person with the same problem with listen and take the advice.

ps: I sometimes ask for advice and do it my way, too, so there's that. Just saving myself from becoming too hypocritical. Best of luck either way...you'll need it.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

This talk of storing for a while and re-bottling is head-shaking stuff. I know impatience can influence decisions, but on this one I really think you should do things properly and wait. Uncap every bottle. Now. Put some plastic wrap over them (tape around the neck to hold it tight). It's time consuming, but necessary. Plastic wrap lets gas escape under pressure, but won't let much air-pressure Oxygen get in. Leave the bottles somewhere warm for two weeks. By then, all of the sugar you added will be gone. Then re-cap with two carbonation drops per bottle. No transferring beer (bad) and no bottle bombs (bad) just a bit of effort and time.

 

[TwistedGray]

You can also re-carb with 1/2tsp of white table sugar per 12oz bottle instead of carbonation drops if you prefer...that is, if you're not just mopping up the beer off the floors, walls, and ceiling.

 

[Hayden123982]

Will open them all in a few days, leave them open for a few hours, re bottle and sacrifice and drink a beer every 2-3 days

I don't think you need to sacrifice the beer to oxidation or drink them all very quickly. To me this isn't really that big of a deal.

Why don't you open a bottle tonight and see how the carb is. If too low, then maybe give it another 12-24 hours room temp. Once you get to a good carb, heat all the bottles up to 150 in a warm water bath then let them come back down to temp. It'll stop the yeast.

Cider peeps will intentionally over dose sugar to back sweeten and if they bottle the cider (which is a pain), they follow the process above. I think the sugar they add is even more than what you have done. I've done it once before for cider and I believe it was 48-72 hours at 68-70F before I was carbed.

Also, I wouldn't worry about overly sweet beer because you already mentioned you tasted it and its good.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I don't think you need to sacrifice the beer to oxidation or drink them all very quickly. To me this isn't really that big of a deal.

Why don't you open a bottle tonight and see how the carb is. If too low, then maybe give it another 12-24 hours room temp. Once you get to a good carb, heat all the bottles up to 150 in a warm water bath then let them come back down to temp. It'll stop the yeast.

Cider peeps will intentionally over dose sugar to back sweeten and if they bottle the cider (which is a pain), they follow the process above. I think the sugar they add is even more than what you have done. I've done it once before for cider and I believe it was 48-72 hours at 68-70F before I was carbed.

Also, I wouldn't worry about overly sweet beer because you already mentioned you tasted it and its good.

THe difference to cider is that sweet beer normally tastes shi##y, but like you say the OP already said it tastes good so......

 

[Hayden123982]

THe difference to cider is that sweet beer normally tastes shi##y, but like you say the OP already said it tastes good so......

Exactly lol don’t make this your standard or practice

 

[Toto's]

Well i will take off the cap for half of my batch and the other half i will continue release the CO2 from the cap .... i will let you know the results of each method. After all this is the great part of a forum, we can study , research and try things and share our results

 

[Chet Ripley]

This talk of storing for a while and re-bottling is head-shaking stuff. I know impatience can influence decisions, but on this one I really think you should do things properly and wait. Uncap every bottle. Now. Put some plastic wrap over them (tape around the neck to hold it tight). It's time consuming, but necessary. Plastic wrap lets gas escape under pressure, but won't let much air-pressure Oxygen get in. Leave the bottles somewhere warm for two weeks. By then, all of the sugar you added will be gone. Then re-cap with two carbonation drops per bottle. No transferring beer (bad) and no bottle bombs (bad) just a bit of effort and time.

+1 to this. I had the same problem last year and this method worked out well. I did sacrifice one bottle to check for stable hydrometer readings before recarbing and recapping.

 

[Nubiwan]

Measure twice, prime once. Also, measuring the priming sugar is one area of brewing where using a precision scale with ~1g resolution is essential.

Can I ask why? I might choose a co2 range of 2.0 - 2.5 for my beer variety which, depending on volume, and fermentation temp, will all return various ranges of priming sugar. Same applies for the temperature I use in the calculation, as well as the volume of beer I am packaging. Difficult to know the exact volume when the measuring the primary over a trub, then adding to a bottling pale. It's a guess at best for volume. Guess you could mark your pale, but you're still eyeballing litres not mLs.

Change any or all of these numbers +/- 0.5, in a priming calculaTor, and the variance in priming sugar required can be 20-30 grams (or more) in many cases. Should I really expect a widely varying range of carbonation In my final product?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Can I ask why? I might choose a co2 range of 2.0 - 2.5 for my beer variety which, depending on volume, and fermentation temp, will all return various ranges of priming sugar. Same applies for the temperature I use in the calculation, as well as the volume of beer I am packaging. Difficult to know the exact volume when the measuring the primary over a trub, then adding to a bottling pale. It's a guess at best for volume. Guess you could mark your pale, but you're still eyeballing litres not mLs.

Change any or all of these numbers +/- 0.5, in a priming calculaTor, and the variance in priming sugar required can be 20-30 grams (or more) in many cases. Should I really expect a widely varying range of carbonation In my final product?

Do you ever brew 1 gallon batches? I'm not suggesting milligram precision here, but cheaper imperial scales only have .1 oz resolution to say nothing of their accuracy. IMHO, not good enough for weighing hops or priming sugar.

 

[Nubiwan]

Do you ever brew 1 gallon batches? I'm not suggesting milligram precision here, but cheaper imperial scales only have .1 oz resolution to say nothing of their accuracy. IMHO, not good enough for weighing hops or priming sugar.

No, its all 5 gallon jobs for me. Its all extract stuff too. I have 4 young kids and SWMBO would naill me to the headboard if she knew I was thinking about taking a weekend afternoon to do a full grain job. So the extract approach is just quick and dirty and still better, or as good as anything commercial. Plus cheaper.

Can see your point for precision if I was doing 1 gallon batches, and you can control volumes easier. Know your grains etc.

When I add water to my extract (5 gallons or so), I simply stop when my OG is at a satisfactory level, so I never know my volume exactly. Then there is my trub space, so I rather have to guess volumes for the caclulator. Can mean a significant difference in what the calculator returns as the correct priming amount. Then if your beer is not listed in the CO2 charts, you are kinda guessing which is the most suitable. Do I use my ferment temp if I bottle at post crash temps? Few differing opinions on that.

All these "decisions" will change the amount of priming sugar you use.

My point was not to question your presicion in weighing, but rather some personal frustration trying to know what works best.

 

[Jayjay1976]

...My point was not to question your presicion in weighing, but rather some personal frustration trying to know what works best.

Accurate measurements work best. Use a quality scale.

 

[Nubiwan]

Accurate measurements work best. Use a quality scale.

The honest answer is that I am too cheap, too lazy or simply forget to buy one when I am out

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Well i will take off the cap for half of my batch and the other half i will continue release the CO2 from the cap .... i will let you know the results of each method. After all this is the great part of a forum, we can study , research and try things and share our results

What were your results, Toto's?

 

[Toto's]

Hello to all
One word BOUM!!!!
Did it happen? Well no it didn't.
I had about 60 bottles, now i have about 35 because my friends loved it lol. You can fit 14 bottles into a 5 gallons bucket. I do have some bottles more primed than others so i released the pressure about every 2 days. The others bottles i released the pressure about every 3-4 days.
My basement is at 12 degrees Celsius. I still have about 6 bottles big time overprimed but all the rest i think they are almost done with the carbonation..... maybe another week or so.
I applied the same technique to my few bottles of Dunkel black beer because they were a bit overprimed . They were not a volcano but they would get out of the bottle after 10-15 seconds but now they are perfect.
So in conclusion, it does work well but i dont think it would have ended well if the temperature would have been 20 degrees Celsius or higher because yeast would have been much more active so i guess you really need to release the pressure every day.
Well tomorrow i will bottle another batch of dunkel beer... guess who is going to verify, and re-verify, and re-re-verify and verify some more!!!!
Hopefully i will not have a nightmare about it this night lol.
For a 5 gallons its about 100g. of sugar. I am not saying this is THE amount because it depends of the temperature, type of sugar etc... but if you calculated 300g well something's is not right.
It must be around 100g!!!
Thank you to all