Priming SNAFU

[Gricey]

So, I'm bottling my heffe, I boil up sugar and water to batch prime. Only I didnt realise I made more of a syrup than a solution.

Poured into bottling bucket, syphon tubed beer on top, bottled. But when I got to cleaning, there was a whole bunch of syrup stuck to the bottom of the bottling bucket. D'oh!!!

So now I have a problem. Do I open all 35 bottles and put back in a bucket to reprime? Prime all bottles individually? Leave it alone?

Argh!!!

Gricey.

[Brotherton Lad]

How much of the syrup was left and how much went in the beer?

The easiest is re-prime the lot in the bucket, allowing for what's already in there.

[Gricey]

Hard to tell, the bottom is ridged. At least half I'd reckon.

[Gricey]

Actually, just thought. Could I buy a bag of carbonation drops, uncap, pop one in each bottle and recap?

[gnorwebthgimi]

Hi Gricey

How long after was the first fermentation? Did you do a secondary fermentation? There may still be enough sugar for the yeast to work with without the additional priming sugar, I just wouldn't expect your beer to be as fizzy as usual.

Some of the sugar may have dissolved (but certainly not as much as intended).

Just an idea but you could open half and add sugar and leave the other half (hedge your bets).

I'd be careful of oxidation, you may have some lee way but the thought of emptying bottles of beer back into a FV then priming again makes me uneasy- too much splashing about.

Do you like your beers very fizzy?

[Brotherton Lad]

On second thoughts, the easiest is do nothing. Let it condition for longer. Get another brew on.

[Gricey]

I could. To be honest though I got this heffe done so I had something to drink quickly - my other brews are all quite strong and I wanted to get the best from them by leaving for longer!

I've ordered some carbonation drops as I needed to grab some more crown caps anyway - so the question is, do I uncap and plop a drop in, or as you've suggested just wait it out?

I was being generous when I said I think half went in, I've now convinced myself the syrup just stuck to the bottom.

Got a couple of days to make my mind up anyway, and hell yes I'll get another brew on. My first brew was on 18 July and I'm planning AG05 now no pdtnc but I've definitely got the bug!

[coatesg]

I would put a drop in each - you want to drink hefes as soon as possible so waiting for 6 weeks for it to carb will take the beer past it's best really. When you uncap them, make sure they are as cold as possible (fridge them for a few days beforehand).

[Gricey]

This has just resulted in uneven carbonation, it's gonna be tricky. Some foam over the neck and waste 2/5 of the bottle, some barely reach the top and need more. It looks like I can tell in the bottle though - the mad ones you can see a tiny amount of foam in the sealed bottle! So the ones without I will add drops to when they arrive.

[Gricey]

Turns out opening and priming = hard now I'll listen and get the temp as low as f'in possible ... setting my fermentation fridge to about 1 degree, hopefully that will do!

Opened a 'flat' one, plopped a carb drop in, fizz tastic. Hope the temp makes a diff! Otherwise I'll need ninja training...