i just bottled my first batch of american wheat a week ago. its sitting in a dark room that stays around 65-70 degrees. i followed directions to a T and my question is how do i know if they are carbed properly once i open one? i was gonna wait another week making a total of 2 weeks in bottles. the reason i ask is i dont want a bottle bomb once i put a few in the fridge. (my better half will have a serious problem with my new hobby :blah: )
Before you crack the first bottle, make sure to put it in the fridge for a few days at least (some say a week or more, but I can never wait that long). Besides cooling it, which is obviously the main goal, it’s supposed to help the carbonation diffuse into the liquid better and will drop any remaining yeast and other sediment to the bottom of the bottle. When you do finally pop the cap, you should hear a hiss. If it’s a huge hiss, you might be in trouble. Do it over the sink just to be sure.
Once they’re in the fridge, you don’t have to worry about bottle bombs. The colder temps will put an end to any activity that’s going on in the bottles. But, you could still get gushers when you open them if they’re over-carbed.
:cheers:
It will take the full 2 wks to fully carbonate. They are more apt to blow up when warm. Also as mentioned if you over carb, you can get gushers.
The key to ensuring you do not have bottle bombs is to be sure fermentation is complete. This is best done by taking hydrometer readings before bottling. I would take 2 or 3 readings a day or 2 apart and if they are the same and near the recipe expectations, then it is safe to bottle. The key to ensuring complete fermentation is to brew another batch so you are not fixated on one batch and rushing the process. Seriously.
You’ll know it when you taste it. I just bottled a wheat beer two weeks ago (T-Can and Bearcat’s Wheaten Beatdown.) After one week it wasn’t even close to being ready. I tried one again last night, and after two weeks in the bottle it is almost fully carbonated, but will be much better with at least one more week. I even added a little extra priming sugar at bottling because I wanted it more carbonated than is typical. This early on I usually don’t refrigerate until an hour before I plan to drink them; they just seem more carbonated this way than if I put them in the refrigerator a few days before I drink them. This has been true with every batch I’ve brewed to date. (And clarity just isn’t an issue with wheat beers, so cold crashing is a moot point.) Also while it wasn’t as carbonated yet as I would like, the bubbles did have staying power over the 30 minutes it took me to drink it, so time is all it needs. After a couple of months of room-temperature bottle-conditioning this phenomenon goes away and I can refrigerate well in advance of drinking. If you followed the directions and maintained proper sanitation throughout the process, your chances of bottle bombs is low. If you’re worried about this in future batches, use a priming sugar calculator (Go to Learn/Resources/Priming Sugar Calculator on the Northern Brewer Web site.) Good luck!
Yet another great reason to brew more beer! :lol:
Yet another great reason to brew more beer! :lol: [/quote]
yup that’s what I do, “brew more beer”.
