Urgent Question on my first batch

[bhearn7]

I've got a bit of a newbie question here... This is my first batch and I'm at the bottling phase. After fermentation I added the dissolved priming sugar to the bottling bucket and transferred in the fermented mix, then began to bottle and cap... so far so good. Unfortunately I realized too late that I only had half the bottles I needed. Rookie mistake I know. I bottled what I could, (about 27), but there was at least 20 more bottles worth of beer in the bucket. This was last night and too late to run out for more bottles. Not sure how to proceed, I put a lid on the bottling bucket, (air tight / no air lock for pressure release). Fast forward to tonight. My wife picked up bottles while I was at work and sanitized them... Now I need to determine if it's wise to bottle the mix which has now begun to build carbonation.

I also read something about putting on an airlock, letting it re-ferment and going through the whole process in a few days.

Long story short, what's my best option short of scrapping what's left? Thanks!

 

[bajaedition]

relax, have a beer
put on the air lock
start again in a few days

 

[saeroner]

Interesting situation. In for updates on how they taste in a few weeks.

Please update in a month

 

[thatjonguy]

relax, have a beer
put on the air lock
start again in a few days

This. It will still be beer.

Plus you can do a side by side to see if anything changed.

 

[bhearn7]

Thanks for the quick responses. I think I'll bottle one or two out of curiosity and then put on an airlock for a few days before bottling the rest. I'll update the post in a month or so to let you know what this mistake did to the taste of the remaining bottles. Luckily I've got a couple different cap types to keep this straight.

First batch: Amber Ale

 

[erichsmith]

Welcome to the hobby. The answers givin are what I would do as well. This will be the first of many "mistakes" you'll make. As long as you learn from every lesson you will do fine.

 

[flars]

The yeast will have used up the priming sugar in a few days. Take a hydrometer reading. Wait until next weekend, take another hydrometer reading. If the readings are the same reprime for the remaining volume and bottle.

 

[bhearn7]

Bottled one for curiosity and transferred the rest to a clean carboy. I suppose I'll need to measure a proportional amount of priming sugar when I get to round 2. So glad I didn't have to scrap this much brew! I'll post an update down the road. Thanks again for the fast advice. This is an awesome forum.

 

[richlong8020]

I say you may get a slightly higher ABV but I don't see that there would be any real harm. This will be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[cjgenever]

All will be good. I would have left it in the bucket...one less chance for infection.

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