Will My Bottles Explode or Be overcarbonated?

[twobostons]

Hello Everyone,
This is my first time brewing as well as posting on this forum. There is such and abundant amount of information on here it is amazing.

I brewed my first Batch 2 weeks ago it was an extract recipe from BB, A Rye Pale Ale. Everything came out great and the flavor is awesome, but when I was racking my beer into the glass carboy for 2nd fermentation I disrupted all the trub. I decided not to transfer and basically dumped it. I know.. I know.. thats alcohol abuse. lol, but I didn't want to have off flavors in my beer. So the problem that I'm concerned with is. I primed and bottled my beer with the sugar that came with the kit, but now i realized that it is made for a batch of 5 gallons and my finished batch was 4 gallons after dumping the bit of beer. So, Im scared I might have over carbonated my beer or Im going to have hand grenades in my kitchen.

Any words of wisdom?

 

[midfielder5]

Welcome to HBT.

Well, you gave them 20% more sugar than they were supposed to have, so yes it is a possibility. Also, there is no real need to transfer to secondary for an ordinary pale ale. Lastly, you could have kept the transfer going- and let the trub go to the bottom of your secondary container-- then siphoned "better" (i.e. higher up to leave it behind) into your bottling bucket.
good luck!
cheers.

 

[unionrdr]

It'll def have more carbonation. but as long as the beer was at a stable FG,it might not be too bad. At 1oz sugar per gallon of beer,splitting that 5th ounce between 4 gallons dosen't sound like much.

 

[Hello]

Keep the bottles out of the way, covered with a plastic bag. It is a bit too much sugar but you may be okay. I would test one in two weeks after you chill the bottle for 2 days.

Also, you racked to secondary and dumped beer because you disturbed the trub? It's not only alcohol abuse but it is incredibly worthless to do that. Secondary will also settle the trub and racking to the bottling bucket can be done with the siphon and careful attention to not grabbing any of the bottom dwellers.

Your beer, at best, will likely be over carbonated but again, I think you may be okay to relax just a bit.

 

[twobostons]

Keep the bottles out of the way, covered with a plastic bag. It is a bit too much sugar but you may be okay. I would test one in two weeks after you chill the bottle for 2 days.

Also, you racked to secondary and dumped beer because you disturbed the trub? It's not only alcohol abuse but it is incredibly worthless to do that. Secondary will also settle the trub and racking to the bottling bucket can be done with the siphon and careful attention to not grabbing any of the bottom dwellers.

Your beer, at best, will likely be over carbonated but again, I think you may be okay to relax just a bit.

Okay so I have mixed reviews. I'll probably put a bag over it just in case. I transferred for a secondary fermentation because the recipe called for dry hopping in a secondary. As for for siphoning, it was my first time. I learned a lot on my first batch.

I have another question now. So If a recipe calls for a secondary fermentation, in another carboy is it really necessary to transfer? I though it would help with the clarity of the beer.

 

[unionrdr]

Not really,no. I do it all in primary. About 3 weeks time on average from pitch to bottling day. Maybe an extra week to dry hop.

 

[twobostons]

Thanks didn't think about that As I was doing it. I was just a little frantic and excited about transferring my wort.

 

[Spicemon1972]

More information is needed to assess your risk of over-carb and bottle bombs. How much corn sugar came with the kit? Are you sure that you bottled 4 gallons? My guess is that you should be okay regarding bottle bombs but that you will be around 3 volumes of carbonation assuming 5oz of priming sugar in your kit which is high for the styles that cover pale ales.
That being said, I will give the advice that I was given when I started brewing a couple of years ago - RDWHAHB. Congrats on making beer and welcome to the obsession.

 

[unionrdr]

It's cool man. We all get the 1st time excitment/jitters. the itch to do something with the beer as if it can't do it on it's own. Then we come on here & learn better,each in our own time.

 

[BigFloyd]

Simple. If recipe instructions call for racking the beer to a secondary, ignore them unless you are adding fruit or something. Unfortunately, lots of the recipe instructions out there haven't changed for years (or decades) and are based on old, out-dated brew knowledge. Some of them were wrong to begin with.

Put your fears aside. Lots of times, if you make a little boo-boo (like stirring up trub when needlessly racking to a secondary), it's not going to ruin the beer. If you had let it sit a week or two, it would have cleared up just fine.

 

[billl]

Just for future reference - stirring up some trub going to secondary isn't a fatal flaw. Just keep going and transfer your beer. The trub will settle out in secondary after a couple days and you'll be able to transfer clear beer to your bottling bucket. Same thing is true if you mess up going to your bottling bucket. Just put it in a fermenter and let it sit for a week (to ferment out that bit of sugar) and then start the bottling process again.

Yep, it's annoying, but a whole lot better than tossing out beer!

 

[Hello]

Okay so I have mixed reviews. I'll probably put a bag over it just in case. I transferred for a secondary fermentation because the recipe called for dry hopping in a secondary. As for for siphoning, it was my first time. I learned a lot on my first batch.

I have another question now. So If a recipe calls for a secondary fermentation, in another carboy is it really necessary to transfer? I though it would help with the clarity of the beer.

Mixed reviews on bagging the beer? Meaning, putting a bag over the beer? If you're getting mixed reviews throw a glass bottle up in the air and stand under it. You'll want to bag your beer before you get hit with glass again.

Simple. If recipe instructions call for racking the beer to a secondary, ignore them unless you are adding fruit or something. Unfortunately, lots of the recipe instructions out there haven't changed for years (or decades) and are based on old, out-dated brew knowledge. Some of them were wrong to begin with.

Put your fears aside. Lots of times, if you make a little boo-boo (like stirring up trub when needlessly racking to a secondary), it's not going to ruin the beer. If you had let it sit a week or two, it would have cleared up just fine.

Do what this guy says.

 

[unionrdr]

I should've mention something I noticed. When racking to the bottling bucket,for instance, some trub/yeast gets in the racking tube. Or just some gritty stuff,it'll settle out in short order. Like during the time I'm setting up the rest of the bottling day stuff. Maybe a lil misty going into the bottles,but it'l settle out even then in a couple days on average from my observations.

 

[hbtasdfg]

Don't worry too much. Different beer styles use different amounts of sugar. You probably will not have an explosion problem unless fermentation was incomplete. If your gravity was stable for 3 days you probably are fine.

secondary fermentation is to help improve clarity and conditioning like hopping etc. it is optional if you like or don't mind a little yeast.

 

[twobostons]

I didn't mean mixed reviews about the bag. What I meant was mixed reviews from everyone on the forum. Im definitely going to go home and add a bag over it. As far as second fermentation, you live you learn. My second brew I won't transfer. Is the clarity that much different from a second fermentation?

 

[unionrdr]

I don't think so. I've tried both with no difference.

 

[billl]

" Is the clarity that much different from a second fermentation?"

In my experience, beer clears eventually no matter where it is.

However, transferring off the yeast cake seems to drop the yeast faster. That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether the beer was done fermenting. Lots of people have had problems transferring too early and then the yeast struggle to finish those last few "cleaning up" steps of fermentation. So, if you want to "idiot proof" your fermentation schedule, just leave the fermenter alone and let the yeast do their thing on their own timescale. Once you are consistently making lots of tasty beer, you can experiment with all sorts of techniques and see which ones work well for you.

 

[BigFloyd]

As far as second fermentation, you live you learn. My second brew I won't transfer. Is the clarity that much different from a second fermentation?

It's good that you view this as a learning process. It really and truly is. I dare say that all of us have made our fair share of goofs along the way.

I prefer to cold crash the primary 5-7 days at 35-36*F since I have the means with which to do that (a fridge and temp controller). It not only clears the beer very nicely, if really firms up the trub layer making it much easier to avoid disturbing it and sucking it into your siphon during transfer. It also removes a step (racking to secondary) that presents an opportunity for oxidation and, to a much lesser extent, contamination.

 

[RapscallionMMM]

Ok I have a related question. I bottled a 3 gallon batch of a dubbel yesterday in 16 oz. swing-tops. Because I was brewing a separate batch of something else at the time AND drinking, I made a boo-boo and used a full cup of maple syrup to prime with (which would have been appropriate for a 5 gallon batch) instead of 5/8 cup, which was what I later calculated to be the correct amount. Just FYI, the syrup is Grade A Dark Amber, which I also learned later imparts significantly less maple flavor than Grade B, but oh well.

Anyway, since I nearly doubled the amount of priming sugar, I am pretty certain this is a bottle bomb risk. Correct? I am bottling them in a fermentation fridge, so I dropped the temp down to 60 and double-wrapped them in heavy duty garbage bags. I am also thinking about venting them after a couple of days. Anything else I should think about doing to minimize the potential fallout?

 

[RapscallionMMM]

As a follow up, I checked my FG before bottling and it seemed stable at around 1.012, so I don't think I should have the problem of incomplete fermentation causing a bomb. I am just worried about how great a risk the excess priming sugar poses. Also, has anyone had experience with EZ-Cap swing-tops bottles exploding? They are fairly thick, and as such I wondered if they were more likely to just pop open and gush.

 

[hbtasdfg]

if you only overcarbonated by 20% the odds you made bottle bombs are very low.

If they fail I would expect explosion, not popping open. Beer bottles can handle many times more pressure than typical carbonation, what is way more likely than bottle bombs is you pop one open and it all squirts out as foam all over your wall and carpet.

 

[midfielder5]

My math and with some assumptions, which could be totally wrong, is that 4 gallons of beer, bottled at 60 degrees with 5 oz of corn sugar will give the OP carbonation at about 3.6 to 4 volumes. It is considered "highly carbonated" with a range of 3.3 - 4.5. Highly carbonated beer, like certain belgian styles, are often put in stronger/ special bottles like champagne 750's and topped with wire & cages. It may or may not blow out a regular brown bottle.
I'd just take the precautions listed above and really hope it was done fermenting

 

[RapscallionMMM]

My calculations for 8 oz. of maple syrup in a 3 gallon batch at 60F was approximately 3.8-4.0 volumes, which is high but (I don't think) dangerously high for the EZ Cap bottles. I am going to vent them tomorrow just in case.

 

[midfielder5]

My calculations for 8 oz. of maple syrup in a 3 gallon batch at 60F was approximately 3.8-4.0 volumes, which is high but (I don't think) dangerously high for the EZ Cap bottles. I am going to vent them tomorrow just in case.

Not sure if this was for my benefit: I wasn't answering your question, btw

 

[twobostons]

My math and with some assumptions, which could be totally wrong, is that 4 gallons of beer, bottled at 60 degrees with 5 oz of corn sugar will give the OP carbonation at about 3.6 to 4 volumes. It is considered "highly carbonated" with a range of 3.3 - 4.5. Highly carbonated beer, like certain belgian styles, are often put in stronger/ special bottles like champagne 750's and topped with wire & cages. It may or may not blow out a regular brown bottle.
I'd just take the precautions listed above and really hope it was done fermenting

it was definitely done fermenting my FG was the same after both first and second fermentation. Im going to be optimistic and hope I just end up with fizzy beer. Since there is extra sugar is there a chance it will be done being carbonated in a week as opposed to two? if so will putting the bottles in the fridge help to settle it.

 

[unionrdr]

I don't think the extra sugar will carb any faster. But when they're ready,at least a week fridge time would be a good idea to get them settle down a bit.