Can I reprime (and rebottle) after 2 weeks priming with not enough brown sugar?

[stalling1]

First-time poster, on my fifth brew from a kit - a dry stout.

I bottled two weeks ago, but had no corn sugar. I primed with brown sugar instead, but accidentally used only 1/3 cup. Sitting around 65 degrees F. I opened one beer recently, it's quite sweet and has virtually no carbonation.

This week, I plan to open all the bottles, pour them back in the bottling bucket, add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of (boiled) corn sugar, rebottle them all with new caps, and wait 2-3 more weeks. Will they reprime and carbonate and be delicious? Will they explode? Will they do nothing at all?? Help!

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, 3 weeks @ 70 deg is a minimum amount of time to get carbonation, if your brew is quite sweet, that tells me that the yeast have not had enough time to do there job, 65 deg is a bit cold for carbing, and after they are carb'd, you need to let them sit in the fridge for 4 to 7 days for the carbonation to go into solution.

If you want to add corn sugar, you can add it to each bottle ether in solution or dry, pop the cap and add sugar then recap, just make sure that your measurements are correct, If it were me I would warm to 70 for 3 weeks and fridge for 4 days then try it, if you still want more carbonation then I would try adding 1/2 tea spoon dry sugar per bottle.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[stalling1]

Thanks for the quick reply, WileECoyote. That's all really helpful info. I doubt I can get the temperature up very much, but I will try, then give it some time. In case that doesn't work, a few questions about repriming:

1. If I add corn sugar directly to each bottle, dry, will that be a contamination risk (since it's not boiled with water first)? It's directly out of the homebrew shop's sealed bag.

2. If I do rebottle, do I need new caps, or can I just re-crimp the old caps using my Red Baron capper?

Thanks again.

 

[lgilmore]

Put it in a warmer place, leave it alone for a couple weeks and try it again. If it's not real carbonated the next batch will be better. What you're suggesting is sorta just messing with it and you won't be any happier. Give it some more time.

 

[WileECoyote]

Thanks for the quick reply, WileECoyote. That's all really helpful info. I doubt I can get the temperature up very much, but I will try, then give it some time. In case that doesn't work, a few questions about repriming:

1. If I add corn sugar directly to each bottle, dry, will that be a contamination risk (since it's not boiled with water first)? It's directly out of the homebrew shop's sealed bag.

2. If I do rebottle, do I need new caps, or can I just re-crimp the old caps using my Red Baron capper?

Thanks again.

Yes its a very very slight risk, your beer already has alcohol in it, so it should be fine if you need to do add sugar.
I would use new caps if it were mine, actually if it were mine I would move the beers into a room in my house that was 70 deg and let them carb for 3 to 6 weeks even longer if needed, then enjoy them even if they were under carb'd, just like lgilmore suggested.

Also just an FYI sometimes brews take 2 to 3 months or longer, to carb up, even with more priming sugar than you added to your brew.

look up Revvy's post about carbonation on this forum, he is a wealth of information on carbonating beers.

Cheers

 

[stalling1]

Thanks again. I'll let it sit another few weeks at 70ºF and hope for the best. If it's still completely flat, I'll add some priming sugar to each bottle, wait 2-4 more weeks, and hope for the best. Fingers crossed!

 

[WileECoyote]

Thanks again. I'll let it sit another few weeks at 70ºF and hope for the best. If it's still completely flat, I'll add some priming sugar to each bottle, wait 2-4 more weeks, and hope for the best. Fingers crossed!

Your quite welcome, good luck

Cheers

 

[stalling1]

Well, it's almost 4 months later. I did end up adding some more brown sugar to just 6 of the beers to see what would happen, then let them sit with the originals for another 4 weeks. The re-primed beers were more carbed and slightly less sweet, but not much improved overall.

I am actually still finishing the last of the original under-primed stouts. Just a couple have turned skunky (5 months bottled in the closet, probably too long??). But the rest are what the above commenters suggested: drinkable but just not great.

Morals of the story? Always have priming sugar on hand. If you're using new ingredients, always take careful measurements. And re-priming doesn't seem worth the trouble. Thanks again for the help, everyone!

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, just a fyi, you can use almost anything sweet to prime with, brown sugar, honey, syrup, and on, they all require a different amount to do the same job, and might require different amounts of time too.

There are lots of priming calculators on the web for finding the proper amount of whatever you are priming with, you don't just need to have priming (corn) sugar lying around, in-fact I now use regular table sugar for any bottling I do anymore.

Also skunky beer is normally from sunlight, but it sounds like you kept them in a dark place, I have some beers (a stout for one) that are over a year old now and they are not skunky what so ever, just another fyi.

good luck with your next brew

Cheers

 

[gordontob]

we bottled a porter in early january and even after 10 weeks it was quite flat. we used corn sugar, but not enough. oddly enough, the porter tasted very true to style but had no carbonation. i drank it anyway and can't wait to brew that recipe again. i put the last 8 bottles in my lager fridge at 60 degrees (with our Marzen) and after about 10 days they all had perfect carbonation. give it time, and it will end up ok. 2 weeks is always too short, more like the other folks said 3-4 (maybe more)