Ruined my first batch tonight

[Haggerma]

Lack of concentration I miss read the instructions and added too much sugar into beer when batch priming.

There was two amounts, 150g for larger and 85g for all other beers and I put 150g in.

Tasted it after bottling and it was like drinking sugar water. I know its meant to be sweet but Ill be shocked if the conditioning eats up much of that sugar.

 

[fury_tea]

It's not ruined, it might be highly carbonated though. What I used to do was get a 1L stein and tip my overcarbed beer into there, that way the head has somewhere to go and you don't lose it all over the work surface.

 

[Haggerma]

But would the sweet taste dissappear? The over carbonation I assume I could deal with by just popping open to lids to release the pressure and resealing?

 

[Leon103]

But would the sweet taste dissappear? The over carbonation I assume I could deal with by just popping open to lids to release the pressure and resealing?

It tasted sweet because you added sugar. That will go once consumed by the yeast.

 

[fury_tea]

But would the sweet taste dissappear? The over carbonation I assume I could deal with by just popping open to lids to release the pressure and resealing?

Yes the sugar will turn to alcohol and co2, there will be no sweet taste at all in a couple of weeks.

I have heard of people using that open/reseal technique but never tried it myself. I'd probably leave it over carbonated myself

 

[cushyno]

It will be fizzy alright. I have a couple of batches brewed with MJ36 yeast that seems to keep keep chewing through sugars in the bottle. I cool mine down and do just what @fury_tea suggests - or the bottle into a jug and let it settle to remove some of the fizz.

It's not ruined, just lively.

 

[Haggerma]

Ah OK thanks, still on the learning curve. Fingers crossed.

 

[fury_tea]

Ah OK thanks, still on the learning curve. Fingers crossed.

We all start somewhere! It's difficult to completely ruin a batch I find. Touch wood but I've never had to throw a batch out. I have had to drink some absolute sh*te though haha.

 

[Haggerma]

I've brewed 110L in my first year, so not doing too bad.

 

[Random Badger]

But would the sweet taste dissappear? The over carbonation I assume I could deal with by just popping open to lids to release the pressure and resealing?

Unless the bottles explode...

I don't see why you couldn't let some pressure out, although you will need to decide at what point to do it. Obviously easier with PET bottles and twist off caps to just loosen, quick hiss and retighten rather than removing crown caps and putting on fresh ones. If it was me I think I would be tempted to cover my options by splitting it into batches e.g. leave a third of the bottles to see what happens naturally, vent and reseal a third of the bottles after (say) a few days once you establish that they have some carbonation, then maybe do the other third a few days later. Does anyone know how long it is likely to take the yeast to eat up the extra sugar in the bottles?

 

[Alan_Reginato]

How much beer did you added the prime to?

Usually takes 2 weeks to the yeast consume the priming sugar. But depends on temperature and if you finning or filter the beer before bottle. I used to wait, at least, 1 or 2 months before open the first bottle.

 

[Hopperty]

I would be careful with the bottles esp if we get some warm weather, put a tea towel over the bottle before handling an taking the top off. All that sugar could over pressurie them.

They may also do this when opening - and this was a beautiful to drink beer when the head would settle down.

 

[Haggerma]

The batch was cold crashed for a few days, and moved to new fv for batch priming and bottling, 22L in total.

They are in swing top bottles so no issue in opening and closing. Will be sat in a room which is about 19 deg.

I like the idea of splitting the batch.

 

[markjohnl]

I'm newish to brewing also, but would only be concerned about the bottle pressure. That yeast isnt going to leave any sugar, but turn it to alcohol and since it is only a small amount, would barely be noticable.

There is a youtube vid of some guy venting his bottles that you could search for, but not sure it needs much instruction :-) The one thing I would be tempted to do would be to keep them in a plastic container if in the hojse just in case one does overcarb quickly and make a mess. Also, like someone said, keep them at the lower end of room temp so they carb slow and steady so you can set a number aside to test every couple of days.

My swingtops never seem to get the carb i get from the capped bottles tho, so I wondered if they have a natural ability to release through the seal? Do you find that?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Geek approach
The sugar you added will have changed the gravity of the beer. If you know what your finishing gravity was you can, in theory, determine when half the sugar has been consumed by the yeast and that’s the point to vent all the bottles to get to somewhere near the right level of carbonation.

Others might like to check my maths but I believe 150g sugar in 22 litres will yield a gravity increase of 2.6 points so a gravity of about 1.5 points more than your finishing gravity is the “vent horizon” (good eh?).

You’d have to pick one bottle as your sacrificial sample bottle and take gravity readings until you reach a gravity of FG + 1.5. It doesn’t matter that you’ve let all the pressure go because it’s the gravity you’re interested in.

Bingo - vent horizon!

There are many assumptions here but I think the biggest challenge is measuring a 1.5 point difference with any accuracy. I might though try this myself to satisfy my curiosity!

Common sense
Alternatively, just leave it! If you’d been brewing a lager it would have the same pressure and the bottles will cope with that. Your beer will be a bit lively though as stated so open carefully and pour carefully to minimise the risk of spillage.

 

[doccy]

Is 150g a lot for batch priming? I often use 140g for my pale ales and hadn't had a problem but now I'm wondering is 140g overkill

 

[fury_tea]

Is 150g a lot for batch priming? I often use 140g for my pale ales and hadn't had a problem but now I'm wondering is 140g overkill

What sugar are you using?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
Here's a calculator. Choose your batch size how many vols of carbonation you want etc and it will tell you how much of various sugars to put in.

 

[doccy]

Thanks .. going by that calculator 140g is fine. It makes sense in a rule of thumb sort of way - if you use carbonation drop 4g x 40 bottles would be 160g. If anything 85g would seem a tad low for OP

 

[fury_tea]

Thanks .. going by that calculator 140g is fine. It makes sense in a rule of thumb sort of way - if you use carbonation drop 4g x 40 bottles would be 160g. If anything 85g would seem a tad low for OP

Depends on the type of beer. My dad uses 1.8 vols for his English IPAs which is probably a similar amount. Some people don't like highly carbonated beers, but I'm a bit of a fan of some of the more heavily carbonated styles.

 

[starseeker]

Lack of concentration I miss read the instructions and added too much sugar into beer when batch priming.

There was two amounts, 150g for larger and 85g for all other beers and I put 150g in.

Tasted it after bottling and it was like drinking sugar water. I know its meant to be sweet but Ill be shocked if the conditioning eats up much of that sugar.
View attachment 45597

What have you actually brewed ?

Edit , Sorry ,i have just noticed that there is a picture of the beer kit in the post .