Have I Created Bottle Bombs!?

[LightLager]

This evening, I decided my beer was ready. Measured 5 days at the same FG. Preped my area and started bottling.

Last brew I had sugar lollies (what ever they are called) and gave them a go. I had a few left over for this brew so primed with those and started bottling, about half were primed this way, the other half with dextrose.

I did the lolly bottles first then, when I reached my first bottle primed with dextrose, the bottle was filled with head.

I was not able to fill to my normal level (about 40mm from top) because of the head.

I have not encountered this problem before. Normally I fill the bottles and a few bubbles appear but nothing like 3 inches of head.

K&K method
Coopers Sparkling Ale (Premium Kit)
1.5 Kg of Coopers Light Liquid Malt
300g Dextrose

Temp controlled at 16C for 16 days during brew.
28/12 1060 Original Gravity
03/01 1026
07/01 1020
08/01 1018
09/01 1018
10/01 1018
11/01 1018
12/01 1018 Final Gravity


Has anyone had any similar experience?
Did I bottle at too high a FG?
Is it my beer ok? (Most Important)

Cheers...

 

[wambesi]

This evening, I decided my beer was ready. Measured 5 days at the same FG. Preped my area and started bottling.

Last brew I had sugar lollies (what ever they are called) and gave them a go. I had a few left over for this brew so primed with those and started bottling, about half were primed this way, the other half with dextrose.

I did the lolly bottles first then, when I reached my first bottle primed with dextrose, the bottle was filled with head.

I was not able to fill to my normal level (about 40mm from top) because of the head.

I have not encountered this problem before. Normally I fill the bottles and a few bubbles appear but nothing like 3 inches of head.

K&K method
Coopers Sparkling Ale (Premium Kit)
1.5 Kg of Coopers Light Liquid Malt
300g Dextrose

Temp controlled at 16C for 16 days during brew.
28/12 1060 Original Gravity
03/01 1026
07/01 1020
08/01 1018
09/01 1018
10/01 1018
11/01 1018
12/01 1018 Final Gravity


Has anyone had any similar experience?
Did I bottle at too high a FG?
Is it my beer ok? (Most Important)

Cheers...

LL,

First off I'd relax at this point and see how it goes, what did you bottle in glass or PET? If PET then you will be able to gauge the carb levels by squeezing.
Looking at how much head you said was in the bottles it sounds like their may be an air leak somewhere when bottling, this would froth it up abit.

Just to make sure did you put the sugar in the bottles and then fill them up? It would foam big time if you did it the other way.

Assuming 23L I work out the fol:
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.012
If it was more like 20L then this changes to 1.060 and 1.014 so your readings are not too much off and should be fine, as long as it was stable (and you said it was) it should be ok, sometimes they just stop and don't want to ferment down anymore.

 

[LightLager]

Hi Wambesi,

Just to make sure did you put the sugar in the bottles and then fill them up? It would foam big time if you did it the other way.

Yep, sugar in first, then fill the bottle. I have a brigalow bottle filling setup, which holds the beer in a tube with a small plug at the bottom, when you are ready you put the tube in the bottle and push up. Has worked great my previous 4 brews.

Assuming 23L I work out the fol:
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.012
If it was more like 20L then this changes to 1.060 and 1.014 so your readings are not too much off and should be fine, as long as it was stable (and you said it was) it should be ok, sometimes they just stop and don't want to ferment down anymore.

As for 23L, I always tend to come up short when filling the fermenter. Seem to get around 17-19L in the bottles. So thanks for your comment about the 1060 SG. I just thought I had not stirred the wort enough.

I was sitting here contemplating my position and decided that if I had used lollies for the whole batch, I would not have known about the foam issue. So I figure I am committed to bottling this one.

 

[razE]

Not sure why you had so many bubbles unless your using a sanitiser like star san that foams up? Anyways i would just keep filling the bottles till the bottle is full and let the bubbles overflow!

P.s. make sure your using a bottle filling tube as light lager suggested if your not already

 

[wambesi]

Yep, sugar in first, then fill the bottle. I have a brigalow bottle filling setup, which holds the beer in a tube with a small plug at the bottom, when you are ready you put the tube in the bottle and push up. Has worked great my previous 4 brews.

Yep thats fine, I use a similar setup the ol "lil bottler" on the end of some racking tube, so I simply move along to each bottle press the bottler down in it to fill up then move along to the next.

As for 23L, I always tend to come up short when filling the fermenter. Seem to get around 17-19L in the bottles. So thanks for your comment about the 1060 SG. I just thought I had not stirred the wort enough.

Thats normal, you will always lose a little to the yeastcake down the bottom, you shouldn't lose an awful lot and on brews which the yeast flocs better you can tip the fermenter sideways while filling bottles to get every drop out of it.

Sounds like it should be fine, now it's just see how it goes.

 

[LightLager]

Not sure why you had so many bubbles unless your using a sanitiser like star san that foams up? Anyways i would just keep filling the bottles till the bottle is full and let the bubbles overflow!

Hi razE,

For the last three brews I have used the bleach and white vinegar sanitiser, these have been a mix of lollies and dextrose. Today is the first time I have seen the foam. I guess I am just loosing a bit of carbonation from the fermenter....

I think I will keep these bottles in the bath with a lid on for a week or so, just in case...

Cheers,

LL

 

[olde]

When I was bottling I'd have the same issue when I did some grolsch bottles alongside the pet tallies. The pet would get lollies while the grolsch bottles got caster sugar due to their size being smaller. The grolsch bottles always foamed up while the pet didn't. I managed by slowing the flow a little more for the grolsch bottles and taking my time.. and by allowing the foam to overflow a bit. It would happen more noticeably if I bottled while the fermenter still had a little foam in there, if I waited the full two weeks it'd only have a few spots on top and would bottle easier. (Even though the gravity would still be stable).

 

[LightLager]

Thats normal, you will always lose a little to the yeastcake down the bottom, you shouldn't lose an awful lot and on brews which the yeast flocs better you can tip the fermenter sideways while filling bottles to get every drop out of it.

Sounds like it should be fine, now it's just see how it goes.

Started tipping the fermenter in the last two attempts, thats how I get 19L out. I guess I cannot count when I am filling the fermenter.... :blink:

I am keen to see how this one goes.... Making beer is a real art form. :beerbang:

 

[LightLager]

When I was bottling I'd have the same issue when I did some grolsch bottles alongside the pet tallies. The pet would get lollies while the grolsch bottles got caster sugar due to their size being smaller. The grolsch bottles always foamed up while the pet didn't. I managed by slowing the flow a little more for the grolsch bottles and taking my time.. and by allowing the foam to overflow a bit. It would happen more noticeably if I bottled while the fermenter still had a little foam in there, if I waited the full two weeks it'd only have a few spots on top and would bottle easier. (Even though the gravity would still be stable).

Hi Oldy...

Slowing the flow is a great idea. I guess sometimes I cannot think of the most obvious things.

I filled the bottles and placed a loose cap on them, so any gas could escape, then allowed the foam to dissipate, and topped up the bottles, then capped them properly.

I am not that keen on the lollies, due to their cost, you get much more out of a bag of dextrose. It was a good experiment. I learnt something.

Cheers...

 

[Phoney]

I am not that keen on the lollies, due to their cost, you get much more out of a bag of dextrose.

Is there any difference in taste, head retention etc?

I have heard people say there is, my LHBS told me there isn't, I wouldn't know either way...

thoughts?

 

[LightLager]

Is there any difference in taste, head retention etc?

I have heard people say there is, my LHBS told me there isn't, I wouldn't know either way...

thoughts?

I had the same question... I did it using the Blue Mountain Lager, everything was the same except 3/4 of the bottles were lollies and 1/4 were dextrose.

On day 20 after bottling, I got a dex and a lolly bottle chilled them in the fridge for the same amount of time, and did a "coke" test... I could not tell the difference, head retention was the same, even the carbonation was about the same. For me, there is no difference, more experienced brewers may know more.

 

[wambesi]

I never tasted any differences but you can get carbonation differences across the batch as the lollies a lot of the time are not the exact same size.
There are different brands and qualities but I would find some where broken a little or just plain different sizes.

I find bulk priming a much better and even method for carbonating bottled beers.

 

[razE]

Is there any difference in taste, head retention etc?

I have heard people say there is, my LHBS told me there isn't, I wouldn't know either way...

thoughts?

After some advice from a friend who is a reputable home brewer, I was told not to waste my money and carbonate using ordinary household white sugar. Works great, low cost, good heads and dont notice the taste at all. Anyone else out there?

 

[wambesi]

After some advice from a friend who is a reputable home brewer, I was told not to waste my money and carbonate using ordinary household white sugar. Works great, low cost, good heads and dont notice the taste at all. Anyone else out there?

Plain ol Sugar, Dex and lollies (and probably even LDME) you wouldn't taste anything.
However if using honey, chicos, mollasses etc they will give subtle notes to it, although as it is only for bottle carbonation it wont be much and usually wont last much more than a few weeks.

 

[warra48]

I use caster sugar, and average about 2.5 gr per stubby.
That equals up to a maximum of only 2/3 % of the weight of the beer.

The sugar is completely fermented out by the residual yeast in the beer, producing the carbonation.

I fail to see how this tiny proportion could impact the flavour in any way at all, and I defy anyone to tell the difference between bottles primed with sugar, caster sugar, dex, or even LDME. I'm willing to concede some honeys, molasses etc may make some tiny tiny difference.

When bottling I find that if I start the little bottler at full flow it will produce fizz. If I start it slowly and then to full volume once the beer reaches the bottom of the bottler, I can fill the bottles without fizz at all.

 

[boingk]

White augar primer here. Also, if you rinse your bottles out and more or less immediately prime them with sugar (for those non-batch primers still surviving) I find there is virtually zero foaming due to the sugar/dex/whatever being dampened by the inside of the bottle.

And LightLager? You'll love that Coopers kit - my father swears by them made up to directions and I think they're tops. Just a big, malty decent abv. beer. Not a lot of bitterness to counteract the malt, but thats not a problem. I've come to think of the Sparkling kit (when made up with the directions recommendation of 1.5kg liquid malt tin, 500g LDME and 300g dex) as a kind of Aussie Belgian-style ale. Big crowd-pleaser

And your gravity seems fine, certainly in line with what I've felt whilst drinking one. Thats why they have a nice, dense head that just doesn't quit.

Cheers all - boingk

 

[Fermented]

When I started and was doing kits, I found that they foamed somewhat during bottling with dex. Just crank the flow rate back a bit and you'll be right.

That said, I don't get much foaming at all even with the valve wide open except on brews with a heap of Carapils and wheat malt.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[pint of lager]

As your brew ferments, it produces carbon dioxide. Most of this escapes through the airlock, but some stays in solution in your beer. This will slowly come out of solution due to pressure changes and temperature changes. Many new brewers have confused this very slow airlock movement and thought that their beer hadn't finished fermenting.

When you bottle, some of this dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of solution as foam.

Fine particles such as dust or sugar cause this dissolved carbon dioxide to come out of solution. Dextrose, being a finer particle causes this problem more than sugar sized particles.

If you prime the bottles, then add the beer, usually the small amount of foam subsides before the bottle is full. If you make the mistake of filling the bottles, then trying to add the sugar, it froths everywhere.

After trying various products (dextrose, DME, wheat malt) to prime with, and many conversations with brewers, plain table sugar is the easiest product to use. The very small amount compared to your overall recipe will only have a very minor effect on flavour. I do not recall anyone in a side by side test detecting the presence of table sugar as the priming agent.

If you bottle as soon as fermentation has finished, there is more dissolved carbon dioxide and more risk of foaming at bottling. Your beer will be much improved by leaving the beer in primary fermentaion for about 10-14 days at the correct fermentation temperature. Brewers that like to fiddle, will be racking and chilling at some stage too, but the keep it simple of 14 days in the fermenter does a top job for your beer.

Ferment everything at the correct temperature, usually 18-20 degrees for ale yeasts.

Give your beer time and patience. 14 days in primary (not cooking on a heat mat) at 18 degrees, double check the sg with a hydrometer and then bottle.

 

[raven19]

After a quick review of responses thus far, (and not seeing any suggestion of racking to second fermenter), can I suggest racking your beers when bottling. Then you can get a thorough mix of priming sugar with your beer. Also clears things up a little bit leaving the yeast cake behind...

I find this SO MUCH easier along with a bottling wand. No foaming issues in any of my brews.

2c.

 

[LightLager]

And LightLager? You'll love that Coopers kit - my father swears by them made up to directions and I think they're tops. Just a big, malty decent abv. beer. Not a lot of bitterness to counteract the malt, but thats not a problem. I've come to think of the Sparkling kit (when made up with the directions recommendation of 1.5kg liquid malt tin, 500g LDME and 300g dex) as a kind of Aussie Belgian-style ale. Big crowd-pleaser

I am dead keen for this kit to come good. It tasted a little bitter, but should be a good ale. I left the 500g malt out on advice from this site.

Making beer is better than watching TV...