Quandary

[Llamaman]

Hi all

As you may have seen from my other thread, I have a beer that I have foolishly bottled too early before it had finished fermenting (probably: 1.021 for a kit brown ale).
Luckily I went for a low priming value (1.5 volumes) and PET bottles.

My FV is now in use for another beer that’s 3 days in - it’s pretty much the same beer (the other half of the kit but with a different DME). There’s a fair amount of headspace (15L FV with 10L of brew).

Now, do I try and pour some of the first batch back into the FV and hope it finishes fermenting?

Or should I put in into a couple of 5L water bottles I have lying around and let it do a secondary ferment. It would be at ambient temp and I don’t have any spare yeast, except;
I could add some krausen from batch 2, or
I could culture up some from a bottle conditioned beer. I have a Sierra Nevada that I think uses an attenuating yeast?

Or, I could do nothing and hope for the best. The beer is in PET bottles in a cardboard box and will shortly be moved to the shed for a low and slow maturation.

Or chuck it. But no one is going to recommend that right?

What would you do?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hi all

As you may have seen from my other thread, I have a beer that I have foolishly bottled too early before it had finished fermenting (probably: 1.021 for a kit brown ale).
Luckily I went for a low priming value (1.5 volumes) and PET bottles.

My FV is now in use for another beer that’s 3 days in - it’s pretty much the same beer (the other half of the kit but with a different DME). There’s a fair amount of headspace (15L FV with 10L of brew).

Now, do I try and pour some of the first batch back into the FV and hope it finishes fermenting?

Or should I put in into a couple of 5L water bottles I have lying around and let it do a secondary ferment. It would be at ambient temp and I don’t have any spare yeast, except;
I could add some krausen from batch 2, or
I could culture up some from a bottle conditioned beer. I have a Sierra Nevada that I think uses an attenuating yeast?

Or, I could do nothing and hope for the best. The beer is in PET bottles in a cardboard box and will shortly be moved to the shed for a low and slow maturation.

Or chuck it. But no one is going to recommend that right?

What would you do?

drink before summer comes!

 

[Snrub]

What was the OG and which yeast did you use? In other words, was the % attenuation anywhere near what was expected for the yeast?

I think if it were me I'd leave it where it is. Might be a different story in bottles, but you can always monitor the pressure levels with PET and let some out if you see a problem.

 

[Pjam]

You might get bottle bombs or at best you'll get 'gushers'. Early on I had a few gushers, they were almost impossible to drink and that was because I was only going down to 1,012 where I should have been down to about 1,008. Nowadays I've improved and expect (depending on yeast etc) 1006

 

[MyQul]

You might get bottle bombs or at best you'll get 'gushers'. Early on I had a few gushers, they were almost impossible to drink and that was because I was only going down to 1,012 where I should have been down to about 1,008. Nowadays I've improved and expect (depending on yeast etc) 1006

Dont think he'll get bottle bombs as he used PET. Maybe gushers though

 

[Llamaman]

Yeah, if I’d used glass I’d be popping those caps now. Eyes > beer

 

[Llamaman]

What was the OG and which yeast did you use? In other words, was the % attenuation anywhere near what was expected for the yeast?

I think if it were me I'd leave it where it is. Might be a different story in bottles, but you can always monitor the pressure levels with PET and let some out if you see a problem.

Just checked my notes. Was only half a bag of extract and 500g DME in 10L - 1.044.

 

[terrym]

First, what's done is done.
Next, leave it alone, it's in PET so you can monitor the carbing levels.
If you hard chill the beer before you open the first one and you still get a gusher you might have problem to deal with.
If not, you don't and you can take it from there.
But the chuck it option, don't even go there.
Think positive

 

[Llamaman]

First, what's done is done.
Next, leave it alone, it's in PET so you can monitor the carbing levels.
If you hard chill the beer before you open the first one and you still get a gusher you might have problem to deal with.
If not, you don't and you can take it from there.
But the chuck it option, don't even go there.
Think positive

Thanks.
I left the chuck it option purely for suggestions - I wasn’t actually going to do it (having leant from my refractometer fiasco).
My hunch was leave it, followed by 2nd fermentation in the old Asheck bottles. Whilst I was intrigued about the idea of mixing two batches, my fear was I’d take one ruined batch and ruin a second with it!

But the key lesson learned is - assume nothing, test everything.

 

[Dutto]

If you are using PET bottles with screw tops why not just slack the tops every day to release some of the pressure?

If the brew is "gushing" now it won't get any better with time, but by putting the bottles in a fridge before loosening the caps, you may reduce the amount of loss.

Sure it's a faff, but that's so you remember to double check things in the future!

 

[Cwrw666]

Gushers are rarely a total loss. Refrigerate before opening. Remove the top quickly and tip immediately into a jug. There always seems to be a lag between popping the top and the gush of about a second. You'll get a jugful of foam but it'll settle out in a few minutes. If you do it quick enough you'll not get any yeast in the jug.

 

[Slid]

Loosen the tops on the PET bottles. Dutto is right, just let the excess CO2 out, before it concentrates to the point of forming unpleasant carbonic acid. If you used 2L bottles, it is easy to loosen them slightly and even leave them overnight.