Alright guys, New to the forum and homebrewing as well. This is my first batch and I did caribou slobber from northern brewers. My yield was pretty far off I know when siphoning into the secondary and into bottling bucket with only one set of hands I didn't get as much as I could get out. I didn't anticipate this and primed with the full amount of priming sugar the kit contained which is 5oz of corn sugar. Now I only yielded 37 12 oz bottles which equates out to 444 oz or 3.46 Gallons. I've read its super important for the flavor and complexity of beer to leave it at room temps for 2-3 weeks to condition before even considering fridging them. I've done lots of searching and can't find the exact answers I'm looking for. Do you guys think I'm going to get bottle bombs if I keep them out for awhile tomorrow will be 7 days I popped a bottle today @ room temp (rookie move I just learned) its carbed up but probably could use more time gets a nice head but next to no retention. Whats my best plan of action? Thanks
Welcome to the forum. It's not. Get your carb level where you want it. Cold conditioning is great for a lot of styles of beer. I think you'll be over carbed. Play with the numbers on a carbonation calculator and see that you come up with 3.5 CO2 volumes. That'ts way bubbly for the style, but not going to kill anyone. https://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ I'd be cycling them into the fridge every day until you get the carbonation level you want. Then I'd get the rest of the bottles into the fridge. Lock the CO2 in place and continue to drink as you want. Sorry you'll lose some fridge space. As for head retention, you may have other issues here. The recipe probably doesn't lend much in the way of a big frothy head. Just a guess without seeing a kit for a North American Brown Ale. If this is one of your first beers and it tastes good, you're doing a lot of things right. Lesson learned: use a carb calculator after you get your volume. You can use table sugar and make a simple syrup.
I agree with inchrisin, the head retention is probably another issue that relates to your ingredients, so let's focus on the over-carbonation issue. Once you check out the carbination calculator and you discover that you're way too high on carbonation, you can uncap your bottles to allow excess CO2 to escape before it gets too high and cover each bottle with a small square of aluminum foil which will protect against things getting into your beer but will allow excess CO2 to escape. But this only works before you've reached the over-foaming or gushing stage of carbonation. There is no way to know for how long to leave the bottles uncapped, so it's your guess. If you get a good release of gas when you uncap a bottle, them an immediate recapping may be all the time that you need to leave them uncapped. If you find that you've got a gusher when opening a bottle, refrigerating the rest of them right away will stop the fermentation, so that's your only option when you've reached this stage. Then when you open each bottle you'll just need to be next to your sink with your glass to try to salvage as much beer as you can.
Thanks everyone for the quick responses I've got a beer in the fridge now to test for tomorrow as of today at room temp still seemed alil under carbed. After I put these guys in the fridge if I remove them to transport (some out of town buddies want to try) lets say for a 4 hour car drive do will the carbonation production kick back up if they get warm? Should I only transport in a cooler. Thanks again so much to learn but already the beer tasting good has got me hooked.
Why wouldn't you want a cold beer after a 4 hour drive? It probably wouldn't be the end of the world either way. Cold will be predictable.
It's very hard to get bottle bombs from over-priming. Not saying it can't happen, but an infection is much more likely to cause your bottles to explode. That being said, I wouldn't worry too much about bottle bombs. I'd do what the others said and just test one out every week or so and see how the carbonation is progressing. Once they get to your liking, get them cold and that'll help to halt fermentation in the bottle any further
Yeah this seems to be the plan once I think the carb levels are right ill throw most of them in the fridge and leave a few in my plastic container just to experiment a touch longer to see if theres major flavor differences. I really do appreciate everyones help.
