:shock: Ok, I need some expert experienced help here. Bottling day arrived for my honey nut brown… I let my priming sugar mixed with 2 cups of boiling water cool down to 80 degrees…and when I picked up the small pot of solution from the stove, I tried to catch the thermometer that was toppling out and spilled about 1/4th of the solution out.
So, I didn’t have any extra priming sugar on hand to recreate or add to the solution, and I just decided to take a risk thinking there would be enough for my brews carbonation…
I believe I was wrong in that guess, as they are almost flat (some light carbonation) after 4 weeks of conditioning in bottles at 70 degrees… They have some very light carbonation, but do not retain a head of much value…
So… Where and what do I have as options at this point besides dumping the 50 bottles of brew?
I do NOT have any kegging options… only re-bottling at this point…
Should I try dumping the entire 50 bottles into bottling bucket then mixing up a full solution of priming sugar and water and mixing into bottling bucket and re-bottle?.. or what is the surefire solution here? Any and ALL advise and help is greatly appreciated here… I really do NOT want to dump this batch … Thanks… Steve (tptools) :cheers:
Don’t dump it! You could always blend it with another carbonated beer, even commercial beer. Or yes, you could pop all the tops and add more priming sugar. Or use some of it for cooking. Or give it away to friends who don’t mind a little lack of fizz. The choice is yours, but honestly, I cannot see dumping 5 gallons of beer just because it is a little flat!
Ok, I guess I may have left the impression of dumping the brew as a choice when I said “I do not want to dump this brew”… I apologize for implying any chance of me “dumping” this brew by saying i didn’t want to …
What I am asking for is expert instructions on re-carbonating this brew, preferably with priming sugar, that I now keep a backup stock of it… I am not clear on things like how much priming sugar I should re-add, if yeast is needed, when, how much, in what order… etc…etc… Thank you again, and rest assured I will NOT dump this brew… :cheers:
First, it may carbonate well enough with time, though it sounds like you have waited it out long enough. Second, you can mix it as Dave said. Third, do not put it back in bulk at this point, since it will oxidize in a major way.
My thought - Mix up some sugar with water (say a mixture of a half cup sugar to two cups water) and use an eye dropper to add about an eye dropper full of solution to each beer. Then wait 2 weeks and check. If they start to be overcarbed, drink them quickly!
Pretty straightforward; if you think you lost 1/4 of your priming solution, just make up that much solution again. Get a graduated dropper or small measuring spoons and calculate how much solution needs to go in each bottle. Pop the top, drop in the solution, and recap with new caps. Been there, done that, works just fine. I’ve also had the opposite problem; realized the next day that I had added way too much priming sugar. In that situation I pealed up the lip of the caps just enough to vent the gas but keep the bottles covered, left them vented for two days, and then recapped with new caps.
Layed them out a few at a time and squirted with Starsan, opened up a few bottles and drop one in each. New cap and done.
Blake[/quote]
This what I would do, but you don’t need to spray them with sanitizer.[/quote]
I forgot the part where I couldn’t stop sucking on them… tasty.
Come to think of it that was a pain, as the tabs sat for a bit the starsan made them sticky. Enough alcohol in the brew at this point just pop them in.
Do you have a scale that can measure out 0.1 grams? If so, you can measure out a dose of priming sugar to add to each bottle. 1.0 grams of corn sugar adds about 0.7 volumes of CO2, which is probably right where you want to be.
I saved a batch using this method before. It gets a little hairy adding sugar to a partially carbonated bottle of beer. Here’s my story:
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