Carbonation question

[Shady Lane Brewing]

Hi, all. I had an issue today with the sediment/yeast/who-knows-what getting stirred up while I siphoned my beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket. It's supposed to be a 5.5 gallon batch, but crap started coming down the chute after a little more than 4 gallons. (I had a ton of particulates after I mashed but that's another issue.)

Anyway, it was clear that the remaining beer in the fermenter wasn't going to settle down any time soon, so I bottled the 4 gallons. My question (finally): I boiled 3/4 cup of corn sugar for 5.5 gallons. Am I going to have a problem with bottle rockets because I bottled 4 gallons worth instead of 5.5? This occurred to me because my wife said, "Is that going to be a problem?"

 

[Josh Hughes]

It will be over carbed if you accounted for 5.5 gallons. But…usually you make 5.5 gallons to get 5 gallons of beer.

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

It will be over carbed if you accounted for 5.5 gallons. But…usually you make 5.5 gallons to get 5 gallons of beer.

Yeah, it was probably more like 5 gallons. Any suggestions on how to handle the bottles? Will it be safe?

 

[Josh Hughes]

I doubt it will be an issue. Sanitation would be a bigger problem. Change the amount you used in your recipe. My guess it will be just carbed more. What was the beer and what volume of carbonation were you shooting for?

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

I doubt it will be an issue. Sanitation would be a bigger problem. Change the amount you used in your recipe. My guess it will be just carbed more. What was the beer and what volume of carbonation were you shooting for?

It's a Hefeweizen. I was following a recipe so I can't say I was shooting for any particular carbonation volume.

 

[Josh Hughes]

With a Hefe you’ll be happier with what you did I’d say. Those are higher carb than a generic amount of sugar included in a recipe, which most just put the same for some reason

 

[Josh Hughes]

Did you put the recipe in BrewersFriend?

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

Great. Thanks. So about that gallon or so that's left over. I immediately put the lid back on and put it in the fridge to cold crash it. Might that be salvageable? I thought I'd see if it would clear, boil a lot less corn sugar and try to bottle it. What do you think? Am I crazy?

 

[Josh Hughes]

It’s definitely salvageable. Put a 1/4 tsp of sugar in each bottle

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

Did you put the recipe in BrewersFriend?

No, I did not. But somebody else did under

 

[Josh Hughes]

You can make sure the sugar matches and you’ll get an idea

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

It’s definitely salvageable. Put a 1/4 tsp of sugar in each bottle

Awesome. I "borrowed'' this recipe:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/257467/the-real-authentic-german-hefeweizen

 

[Josh Hughes]

How much sugar did you use?

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

How much sugar did you use?

3/4 cup of corn sugar for bottling

 

[Josh Hughes]

Assuming i put it in right. You’ll be fine

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

Assuming i put it in right. You’ll be fine

Cool. I'm pretty new to this. That was my first all-grain batch. Sometimes when I look at the Brewer's Friend site, it's a little overwhelming. Learning bit by bit and mistake by mistake.

 

[Josh Hughes]

Welcome to the forum and brewing! His is a great place. People teach me something everyday on here. One piece of advice I’ll give is to put stuff in the recipe builder and change ingredients, amounts etc and see the changes. Even if it’s “practice” recipes. Pretty neat stuff

 

[Shady Lane Brewing]

Welcome to the forum and brewing! His is a great place. People teach me something everyday on here. One piece of advice I’ll give is to put stuff in the recipe builder and change ingredients, amounts etc and see the changes. Even if it’s “practice” recipes. Pretty neat stuff

Interesting. Will do.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I'm sure it'll be fine and as Josh said the right style for this sorta thing to happen too

 

[Minbari]

If it already in, nothing you can do about it

I don't you will have an issue, it will be sightly more fizzy than you wanted, but not bottle bomb.

Honestly, i would have just put in less of the sugar, but what's done is done.