Just bottled my first batch and extremly worried.

Just bottled my first batch, it was the classic American light kit from mr. beer. It was a two gallon batch so I boiled 0.3 cups of sugar (converted to tablespoons) in 1 cup of water, let it cool and put it in my bottling bucket. Next, I siphoned my beer into the bucket with the tube in a spiral to create a stirring action from the entering beer. I read that the beer being siphoned into the sugar alone was enough stirring. However, I tasted the last bit that was leftover after I filled my bottles and it was incredibly sweet (undrinkable). So i poured a little from the first bottle I filled and it was not sweet at all.

So in short, I think my priming sugar did not mix well with my beer and I am worried about inconsistent carbonation. Possible bottle bombs on the sweet end and no carb on the other.

Walk away from your bottles for am MINIMUM of 3 weeks @ 70.....AND relax.

There's absolutely nothing you can do now anyway....and 99.999999999999999999% when a new brewer panics about something it turns out ok ANYWAY.

Let them do their thing and more than likely you'll be fine.

Sit back and relax. Give it time

They are put away, and I will leave them be.

But, for future reference, was I correct in not stirring the beer when siphoned into the bottling bucket? Or should have it been stirred?

I usually don't stir. Relax!

ME_Brewski said:

They are put away, and I will leave them be.

But, for future reference, was I correct in not stirring the beer when siphoned into the bottling bucket? Or should have it been stirred?

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I've NEVER stirred and I've NEVER had any carbonation problems.

If you've boiled priming solution and are adding it to the bucket while racking the beer over, it really mixes itself better than most new brewers think it does. It's not like mixing oil and water, you're really mixing two very similar densities that want to go together.

We talk about this at least once a week on here, here's part of a discussion from before the holiday;

Stauffbier said:

Regarding the "stir" debate...

I did a little experiment about a year ago. You can try this too.

Take a cup of water and add your favorite color of food coloring to it. Add a lot of food coloring so that the color is nice and dark. Dump it in a bucket. Rack 5 gallons of clear water from another bucket on top of the colored water with a siphon. This imitates racking beer onto priming sugar. You'll notice that the cup of colored water mixes in with the 5 gallons of clear water very nicely. Give it a try!

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Yup. I don't know why this is so hard for people to grasp.... One of these days I'm actually going to brew an extremely light beer, like a kolsch and tint my priming sugar solution, and get the clearest bucket I can find to use as a bottling bucket, maybe one of those plastic containers from a restaurant supply store, and put 2 or three cameras on the damn thing to have three different angles, and record it mixing, and finally put this damn myth to rest.

It's one thing to be dropping dry sugar into the bucket, and another to be mingling two liquids of nearly the same density.

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Whenever someone says they have inconsistant carbonation it's really that you don't have a carbonation problem, you just have a patience one.

I've stirred but that's just me! Sounds like it's fine.

Well, what's done is done I suppose. Just seed very odd that two samples from the same batch could taste so different.

:d

ME_Brewski said:

Well, what's done is done I suppose. Just seed very odd that two samples from the same batch could taste so different.

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It's called "new brewer paranoia," nothing more. We here this all the time from nervous nellies, and then yet, magically it turns out ok.

Revvy speaks the truth, brewing is magic. It all comes together just fine, spend your time worrying about what you're brewing up next.

Revvy said:

It's called "new brewer paranoia," nothing more. We here this all the time from nervous nellies, and then yet, magically it turns out ok.

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That's great.

It is going to be fine. Relax. Yeasts know what they want, and they want you to have good beer! They want you to be happy, so don't fight them! Wait for a while and everything in the universe will be A-OK. Really. Calm the F* down. Drink some nice commercial brew until you just don't care anymore. Lather-rinse-repeat for the two months it will take for your beer to be done. It will be awesome, I promise.

Thanks guys.

everyone starts at one point or another. Theres many people on this forum who have ton of knowledge and are very helpful.

If you put the primer in, then rack on top of it I don't see how its physically possible to not be mixed well enough, I just stir it to look cool.

True, we're all having a bit of a laugh at the "new guy" experience. Seriously, everything will be cool. Put the bottles away someplace safe and forget about them for a while. Brew some new brews. You'll be happy that you did. Homebrew is a test of patience more than anything else. Given time everything will work out fine. Months from now you'll sample your first brews and will "get it". It is an eye-opening experience.

Revvy said:

It's called "new brewer paranoia," nothing more. We here this all the time from nervous nellies, and then yet, magically it turns out ok.

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HA!!! that "STOP" sign is freakin' hilarious!!

Revvy said:

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Revvy has got it covered. Mellow out, everything will be fine. Peace y'all!

Heck and I use a paint stirrer on a drill to make sure its mixed well. Are the yeasties smarter than me? Dang it!

The yeasties don't have paint stirrers. They are laughing at your feeble efforts. Chill out y'all. Beer will win without your efforts.

Frige said:

Heck and I use a paint stirrer on a drill to make sure its mixed well. Are the yeasties smarter than me? Dang it!

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I just about spit out my coffee. Lol