Carbonation Question

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RichLum

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Hi guys,

I bottled my latest batch last night - a Pale Ale kit.

This morning I was wiping the bottles down to remove the dried sanitiser from the outside and noticed one of the bottles had a large crack in it. Didn't noticed it when bottling or washing so not sure if it was there already or the pressure from the carbonation brought it out...

Anyway, so I opened the bottle to dump it down the sink and when I opened it it gushed up a bit and overflowed out the top of the bottle. Kinda like as if the bottle had been shaken up a bit.

Is this normal or does it sound like maybe I over-primed?

I used 180gm Dextrose
There was 23L in the fermenter and I drained about 22L out of it into the priming bucket.
that's a bit more than I have been using on my last few batches (120 or 130gm into 20L brews)

Just wondering wheterh more cracks will be appearing in this batch.

thanks,
Rich
 
G'day RichLum,

Bit hard to say if the beer you bottled cracked the Glass by over carbonation or perhaps during bottling , my guess is the later.

Having said this , I would be very concerned about a brew climbing out the bottle after one day after bottling !

Cover the remaining bottles with a towel or similar and place one or two in the fridge , if when cold they still have a fair amount of gas , well your in trouble.

Perhaps they were bottled too soon , did you take a hydo reading?
Happened to someones Oktoberfest once I am told , that was 7 weeks after bottling too !

Best of luck , and be careful of exploding bottles , I am sure you agree that perhaps one exploping near ones face or eyes would be a very nasty New Years present.

Batz
 
Thanks Batz.
Gravity had dropped from 1048 to 1020.
It was 8 days in the fermenter. Aitlock had slowed to bubbling about once every 2 minutes.

This is about the same as other beers I've done. Most have only been left 7 days not 8.
But the drop in gravity has been about the same

I've been sitting my fermenter in the bath tub and covered the tap up with gladwrap and an elsatic band so it's a hassle taking lots aof gravity readins so since the airlock had slowed and the gravity drop was about what I expected I thought it should be ok.
Fermentation was going crazy for the first few days with one of the best krausens I've had - was the first time I've made a starter yeast the day before.

I was just wondering whether if the CO2 hasn't been absorbed into the beer yet maybe that would cause it to bubble over when I opened the bottle...

Will leave the rest and cross my fingers and see...

thanks,
Rich
 
1020 seems fairly high for your FG for a standard kit. I wouldn't bottle it unless it was 1012 or below. I would suggest that this is likely to be the cause of your problems.
 
With the kit I used 1.25 kg dry light malt + 250g maltodextrin

I thought the malt and maltodextrin would result in a higher FG...
 
the increase from the std 1kg of light malt to 1.5kg would result in a higher starting gravity, but not a significant higher final gravity. There would be some increase from the unfermentables in the light malt, but not to anywhere near 1020.

so the yeast would still ferment out most of the light malt and maltodextrin resulting in higher alcohol but not significantly increase the final gravity.
 
Well I took Batz's advice and put a stubbie in the fridge yesterday and left it there all day and opened it last night and it pfzz'd like normal (bit of mist/haze came out the top but no frothing or bubbling) so I'm hoping all will be OK now and the cracked bottle was maybe just from being bumped or something and the bottling and capping bringing the weakness out...

thanks guys,
Rich
 
All the same RichLum i would not leave these puppies too long before drinking em. 180g of Dex for 22 litres is pretty big carbonation. I just bottled my LCPA clone and for 21.25 litres i used 140g dextrose. But i like to leave em for a few months before i drink em. I find i get a steady increase in carbonation for a good 6 to 8 weeks.

enjoy!

STEPHEN
 
RichLum,
I reckon some bottles just get weakend from moving them around in crates etc. I have had a few of my grolsch bottles just crack up the bottle or the bottom bit.
These days I tend to underprime as I find that without being able to keep the bottles at a constant temperature they may get overcarbonated.
If we have one very hot day it will normally happen.

cheers
 
180g of dextrose to 22l of beer seems a lot to me.
We tend to use 150g, comes out fine. I have a chart which I found online that gives weights to use by volume, - see attached.

With Roach on bottling at FG of 1020, too- we don't bottle over 1005.

Table1.jpg
 
Thanks guys.
So if I use dry malt instead of sugar and have some maltodextrin in there too how do you get the FG down?
Do I need to add more yeast?

thanks,
Rich
 
I have found using dextrose 180 was shocking and still 160 was still too high... 150g probably sounds right Backlane Brewery (priming that is)
 
So if I use dry malt instead of sugar and have some maltodextrin in there too how do you get the FG down?
Do I need to add more yeast?
Three choices- add less fermentables (& get a lower SG), add a bit more yeast or just let the amount of yeast that you do put in do it's work a bit longer.
We tend to leave everything alone for three or four days at least, then start taking gravity readings every day. The drop levels off after a few days, after two consecutive days of no movement we bottle if the reading is below 1005.
After 8 days with an FG of 1020 you could have pepped the fermenter up with a bit more yeast.
We had a stuck batch of Cascade Spicy Ghost recently, after 10 days was still at 1012-1015, so we added a pinch more yeast and gave the whole thing a gentle stir- that got it going again.
Bottled with such a high FG, and with the possibility you may have overprimed, you may want to keep these bottles well wrapped in newspaper somewhere quiet & cool for as long as possible, and handle them like eggshells when moving them.
 
Thanks
Do you think if I uncap and recap that might help or will it do more damage than good?

Rich
 
RichLum said:
Thanks
Do you think if I uncap and recap that might help or will it do more damage than good?

Rich
It would help. As soon as you check one and find its overgassed, chill them all down, pop the tops off, leave them 10 mins if you can without them climbing out, recap.
 
If you have a brew that is stuck at say 1020, and you have tried to stir it back to life 4 or so times, in order to revive the yeast and failed. Is it still ok to bottle it like normal, or do you need to add less fermentables to prime with on the off chance that the yeast revives itslef in the bottle

Will
 
Yes if it refuses to budge you could bottle it and yes it would be best to reduce your normal priming amount (I would cut back to about half) and then you want to try one very now and then to be sure of what is going on.
 
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