Home beer making, need help in final stage..............?!
Home beer making, need help in final stage..............?
I'm making Bitter at home with a home kit. Fermentation all went fine, bottled it all up today and looks n' smell fine. Last stage before capping the bottles was to 'add half a teaspoon of sugar per pint', when I did the beer frothed up and over the bottles : ( I did it to each one anyway as obviously it's part of it, but it didn't mention this might happen. It was obviously a bit messy too and now my shed will probably smell like a boozer from now on! I capped them all when it'd disappeared but why did this happen? Have I done something wrong?
Thanks in advance.
Mike.
Answers: Your beer has not finished the first fermentation and was full of Co2 when you put the sugar in. The sharp angles on the sugar crystals gives lots of points where the Co2 can escape from the solution. Try shaking sugar or salt into cold lager to see what I mean. If you look at the bottom of a pub lager glass you will see that it has been etched to make the lager continually produce a stream of bubbles.
If you have capped the bottles, all you can do is make sure you keep the bottles cool before you open them, and perhaps open them outside!!!!
The taste won't be effected.
Really you shouldn't have to use this extra conditioning sugar. If your kit is made up of good barley malt and you have used a beer yeast, then there should be enough sugar left in the beer at the end of the main fermentation to allow the beer to "tick over" in the bottle, producing that the little bit of condition that you need.
If on the ingredients it lists "Barley syrup" buy something different next time. Source(s):
Ex west country brewery owner/brewer. I would guess the beer hasn't finished fermenting. Pour it all back into the barrel and leave it for a week or two. Is your fermenting bin at the right temperature? you started the fermentaion process over again when you added the sugar, this added the carbonation to the liquid in the container the end result will be a carbonated alcoholic beverage in a pressurized container, if the seals hold and the process ends as it should, and you didnt over do it with the sugar, you`ll have a great reward, good luck and enjoy since you bought a kit visit their web site. they may have a forum to discuss problems..
IF not try
http://www.samualadams.com
OR
http://www.thebeveragepeople.com...
BTW
I think you were to add the sugar to your carboy not the individual bottles....? You got the idea down, but the technique should be changed. Instead of adding the half teaspoon per bottle, take the total amount of sugar for all bottles and dissolve it in just enough boiling water to dissolve the sugar. When it cools, add it to the beer container prior to bottling. This will save a ton of cleanup down the road.