Bottled a stout (FG 1.005, ABV ~8%) this evening but i did some dumb math. 71oz of beer at 81°F, I put 0.71 gallons in the priming sugar calculator on Northern Brewer and used 0.5oz sucrose boiled in water to carb up. So, how bad a move was this?
2.5 volumes of CO2 based on Northern Brewers Calculator. Thats not too bad. Over carbed based on style, but still drinkable and away from bottle bomb territory.
Why do you think this would be a bad move? Sounds exactly like what you should have done in my opinion. I'm assuming you entered the calculations correctly. As mentioned before it might be a bit over-carbed but not to the point of being a disaster. Also depends on whether it was aged a bit and the yeast is a bit taxed...if thats the case you might end up with a lower carbonation than you intended. RDWHAHB (Relax, Don't Worry. Have a Homebrew )
81F raises a little red flag. So I'd be more concerned about fermentation temperature than the slight priming sugar miscalculation. But what was the temperature of the wort during fermentation?
Not much lower than that, unfortunately. I'm up on the 3rd floor and don't have much in the way of temperature control.
Id set up a swamp cooler with a fan man. Especially for the first few days... In California that should treat you better than here in humid Houston.
Unless you used a Saison yeast strain (unlikely with a Stout I reckon), you can expect some fruity esters and possibly some harsh fusel alcohols. Like cfobrew said, you really need to find a way to control your temperatures.
Vike, Could you explain why current temp matters in calculating priming sugar? Most beers are chilled down to 40-45 degrees so I'm tying to wrap my head around why this is a factor? Thanks
The higher the temperature of the beer (in a non-sealed environment), the less residual CO2 from fermentation it holds. Call it 'X' volumes of residual CO2. So when you calculate the priming sugar needed for 'Y' volumes of CO2, you only want to use enough to add Y - X volumes.
No. Assuming contant pressure (say, one atmosphere), the solubility of any gas varies with temperature. Really though, there's no way to know exactly how much CO2 has outgassed and whether the CO2 in the beer has reached a temperature specific equilibrium with the air. The priming calculators are nice, but go with experience if your results seem higher/lower than what they predict.
