Secondary sugars affecting priming sugar calculations

[akuhn0301]

Question for you more experienced than I....

I have 5 gallons going right now of a choc/PB milk stout that is in secondary that I dropped a full box of Reese's Puffs in there for "dry cerealing" (add in some extra PB flavor and bring to life the incredible smell).

My question is, how do I bottle this??... how can I calculate how much sugar the cereal threw off while steeping for a week and how much (if any) extra priming sugar I may (or may not) need?

Last thing I want are bottles blowing up from over-carbing.

COULD just keg the whole batch but bottling is preferred for sharing purposes (and possible future competition entry).

Cheers.

 

[porterpounder]

Any sugar freed from the breakdown of the cereal should be fermented out by remaining yeast within a week. You shouldn't have to worry about extra sugar in any calculations. Prime as usual.

 

[akuhn0301]

Any sugar freed from the breakdown of the cereal should be fermented out by remaining yeast within a week. You shouldn't have to worry about extra sugar in any calculations. Prime as usual.

Even if I racked from primary to secondary??... aka, lost the vast majority of yeast that was introduced to the brew.

Also, would it be smart/wise to cold crash it a couple of hours before racking off to the bottling bucket?

 

[Pratzie]

Wait, u added the cereal dry to the secondary?

If that's the case, you may be set up for an infection. Any fruit or stuff added for secondary fermentation is normally boiled/simmered so it kills anything bad and doesn't ruin the beer. Secondly, you shouldn't normally bottle anything after its guaranteed that all fermentation is completed from the secondary.

Then once that is completed and gravity is stable, do as PorterPounder said above and just calculate your priming as you normally would.

But also to answer the question, moving from Primary to Secondary doesn't mean you won't have any yeast left. There will always be more then enough to start fermenting again, even just a little. That's how you bottle carbonate. The little left in the brew will eat the sugar you add and voila, carbonation in the bottle.

 

[akuhn0301]

Wait, u added the cereal dry to the secondary?

If that's the case, you may be set up for an infection. Any fruit or stuff added for secondary fermentation is normally boiled/simmered so it kills anything bad and doesn't ruin the beer. Secondly, you shouldn't normally bottle anything after its guaranteed that all fermentation is completed from the secondary.

Then once that is completed and gravity is stable, do as PorterPounder said above and just calculate your priming as you normally would.

Yep, threw entire box right in (in a boiled/sterlized mesh muslin bag)... same idea as Ballast Point's Victory at Cereal (which, from their own mouths, is added directly to secondary with no other conditioning of the cereal itself).

 

[Pratzie]

Yep, threw entire box right in (in a boiled/sterlized mesh muslin bag)... same idea as Ballast Point's Victory at Cereal (which, from their own mouths, is added directly to secondary with no other conditioning of the cereal itself).

Ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy

When you have it in the secondary, it will def ferment those sugar from the cereal. It won't get to the high krausen state but it will happen. Either way, you wouldn't bottle it until the remaining yeast for done there thing and died so it shouldn't affect much.

If you want, check the gravity again and see what the reading is but I haven't heard of secondary fermentation throwing the priming calculations off where it would need to be adjusted.

 

[hockeybrewer]

Have you use reese puffs before? I tried it once with a second runnings porter(main beer was a ris) and I didn't get an infection per se but it had a noticeable metallic after taste. It was a shame to because it had great aroma and nice taste...till you swallowed it that is. Its been aging for over 5 months and the bottle I tried 2 weeks ago still had it. Please let me know how yours turns out.

 

[akuhn0301]

Have you use reese puffs before? I tried it once with a second runnings porter(main beer was a ris) and I didn't get an infection per se but it had a noticeable metallic after taste. It was a shame to because it had great aroma and nice taste...till you swallowed it that is. Its been aging for over 5 months and the bottle I tried 2 weeks ago still had it. Please let me know how yours turns out.

in another thread there was a guy that this happened to as well (the metallic taste) he said that he reintroduced a brett yeast to it (as an experiment) and it ended up clearing up his issue... weird but worked for him

 

[hockeybrewer]

Wow that is weird, did the Brett give it any sourness or other flavors? I've never tried to brew a sour.

 

[porterpounder]

Have you use reese puffs before? I tried it once with a second runnings porter(main beer was a ris) and I didn't get an infection per se but it had a noticeable metallic after taste. It was a shame to because it had great aroma and nice taste...till you swallowed it that is. Its been aging for over 5 months and the bottle I tried 2 weeks ago still had it. Please let me know how yours turns out.

All that stuff is fortified with iron and other trace metals, so when everything else gets chewed through, it may be leaving enough to taste metallic.

 

[porterpounder]

Even if I racked from primary to secondary??... aka, lost the vast majority of yeast that was introduced to the brew.

Also, would it be smart/wise to cold crash it a couple of hours before racking off to the bottling bucket?

Yes. Enough healthy yeast to bottle condition, enough to chew through added secondary sugars to its alcohol tolerance.

 

[hockeybrewer]

All that stuff is fortified with iron and other trace metals, so when everything else gets chewed through, it may be leaving enough to taste metallic.

This is pretty much what my lhbs owner told me.

 

[akuhn0301]

OK... bottled last night. Gravity dropped back down and stabilized to the FG mark it was at before secondary. Taste was great (even un-carbed) but the aroma was amazing. Here's hoping that carbonation brings this baby really to life! Will keep updated.

 

[sabotenfighter]

Ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy

Not really, there should be enough alcohol in the beer, and dry cereal is typically bagged and flushed with nitrogen in a clean environment, much like hop pellet bags. If not, if there were sugar consuming bugs on the cereal and even a little bit of moisture in the bag, contamination and inability of the product to be shelf stable/fresh, would be a real issue. There is as much risk from infection from a bag of unopened cereal as dry hops.

Fruits and other things need to be pasteurized though as they naturally are perfect carriers of yeasts, bacteria and other microbes.