Oops... No priming sugar added

[gometz]

So I bottled my black imperial IPA 3 weeks ago (mostly in 22 oz bottles, a couple of 12 oz testers), but I completely forgot the priming sugar. Today I wanted to try one out, it was flat. A few tiny bubbles, but just flat (the flavor is great, and good lord I definitely hit over 6.5% ABV, one of those and I am feeling it good).

Now, should I just let it sit longer and hope it carbs, or what should I do?

I was hoping this beer would be ready in 2 weeks so I could bring my father some for his birthday, but the complete lack of carbonation in the test bottle scares me. I took one of the other bottles and shook it and it foamed nicely, but I don't know if that is only because of the sugar content.

I was thinking maybe try force carbonation in a keg or adding priming sugar (either option would require opening all of the bottles and rebottling, which would be a pain and risk infection).

So... what do the beer sages say I should do?

 

[Effingbeer]

Get those carbonation tablets or drops and some new caps. You will have to do each bottle individually. Have fun with that!

 

[doornumber3]

i don't think there's a way you are going to get around opening up the bottles and either doing tablets, kegging, etc....

 

[gometz]

Damn, I was afraid of this. I guess I am going to have to rebottle.

 

[GetSudz]

I agree...tabs would be the easy fix!

 

[Ostomo517]

Damn, I was afraid of this. I guess I am going to have to rebottle.

Not rebottle just recap, like mentioned earlier carb drops are definitely your best bet to avoid oxidizing from moving to different bottles and such.

 

[gometz]

Now here's the problem: I don't think I can make it to my local home brew store tomorrow (Defalco's) and I didn't see the carbonation drops on their website anyways.

Could I use brown sugar instead? It's a very high gravity beer so I am not too afraid of off flavors (did a 75 minute continuous hopping). I was thinking 1/2 tablespoon per bottle (again I am using 22 oz bottles). Yay or nay?

EDIT: according to Morebeer.com, the drops are 27% glucose, 73% sucrose. Brown sugar should be >95% sucrose, is the glucose important for the carbonation?

 

[woozy]

Yay or nay?

Yay.

 

[CTR08]

The glucose is not essential- any sugar will ferment. However, sucrose is more fermentable, and thus less is required (roughly 25% less).

 

[gometz]

The glucose is not essential- any sugar will ferment. However, sucrose is more fermentable, and thus less is required (roughly 25% less).

Thanks for the reply, that's what I was thinking. However I have no idea what the mass of the tablets are vs. what the volume of brown sugar I would be using. I was thinking ~5g for the tablet, with the density of brown sugar being about 15g/tablespoon. Since you use a tablet for 12 oz, using half a tablespoon (~7.5g) for a 22 oz bottle would work. Actually while working on the math to back up my rough estimations, I think I will use 3/4 tablespoon.

 

[wfowlks]

1/2 a tablespoon seems like a lot to me. Do you have amazon prime if so, I suggest getting them off amazon Carb Drops. Even with the super savers shipping if you get something else to make that 25$ for savers the 4 days wont matter to the yeast.


1/2 a Tbsp per bottle would be ~1 cup. I still think thats a lot of brown sugar

 

[CTR08]

I ran it through homebrewdad's priming calculator (using 0.09375 gallons ie one 12 oz bottle). It says, for brown sugar use .08 oz, or 2.31 grams per bottle. If you have a gram scale, you're golden.

http://www.homebrewdad.com/priming_sugar_calculator.php
-I just randomly selected American IPA for the style, but have a look for yourself.

 

[gometz]

I ran it through homebrewdad's priming calculator (using 0.09375 gallons ie one 12 oz bottle). It says, for brown sugar use .08 oz, or 2.31 grams per bottle. If you have a gram scale, you're golden.

http://www.homebrewdad.com/priming_sugar_calculator.php
-I just randomly selected American IPA for the style, but have a look for yourself.

Seems like for 22 oz bottles 1/4 tbsp might be a bit low actually (assuming density of 13.75g/tbsp). But good point , I will go about that level.

Thanks for the help.

 

[CTR08]

Sorry, forgot about the 22 oz thing. The new calculation I got was .15 oz brown sugar per bottle, or 4.32 grams. Food for thought

 

[gometz]

Sorry, forgot about the 22 oz thing. The new calculation I got was .15 oz brown sugar per bottle, or 4.32 grams. Food for thought

Thanks for your help. If the density estimate was correct, 1/4 tbsp is a bit less than the recommended but hopefully it will do.

Apparently they were slightly carbonated, because when adding the sugar they would foam like crazy. Had my girlfriend add the sugar and I would cap quickly after.

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

I did the same thing with 16 oz bottles and put in 5 conditioning tablets in each bottle

 

[ncbrewer]

You might be luckier, but I had to reprime several bottles because the caps weren't sealing well. The first problem I had was adding sugar started the beer foaming, and it was hard to cap them. Then I found that several of these turned sour. I think it was because the sugar wasn't pasturized.

 

[gometz]

You might be luckier, but I had to reprime several bottles because the caps weren't sealing well. The first problem I had was adding sugar started the beer foaming, and it was hard to cap them. Then I found that several of these turned sour. I think it was because the sugar wasn't pasturized.

Ya I am a little afraid of that, but I guess I have to take the risk. I will try out a bottle on 5/23 to see how it is doing.My hope is that any small infection or off flavors will be masked because it is a very full flavored beer.

 

[Effingbeer]

One bottle bomb many years ago prompted me to get kegging. I still get excited when I whip out my beer gun.

 

[gometz]

One bottle bomb many years ago prompted me to get kegging. I still get excited when I whip out my beer gun.

I actually have kegs (3), a kegerator, and everything I need. But I have moved a lot over the years and don't have people over as much anymore, so I tend to brew for myself and then give them to people I visit. So I moved back to bottling.

 

[Effingbeer]

The beer gun makes bottling fun for me again. No priming sugar, no yeast in the bottom of my beer, no worries about carb levels. Whenever I want to go mobile, it takes me 5 minutes to sanitize and hook up. Doing it now to take bottles to the club tonight!

 

[gometz]

The beer gun makes bottling fun for me again. No priming sugar, no yeast in the bottom of my beer, no worries about carb levels. Whenever I want to go mobile, it takes me 5 minutes to sanitize and hook up. Doing it now to take bottles to the club tonight!

Long ago I bought a jerry rigged bottle filler for my kegs, could never get it to work right, always ended up being a big mess. May look into the beer gun though. Thanks!

 

[wfowlks]

I've just bled the keg and dropped the pressure to about 2psi and if you tilt the bottles it has worked well for me so far.

But back to the thread, to sanitize the sugar next time you can turn it to candy sugar