Newbie Canadian Blonde Query

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Mav617

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Hi,

I started a Coopers Canadian Blonde, and it went from an SG of 1.039 down to 1.012 in primary. I then put it into bottles with 2 carbonation drops per bottle (500ml) a little over a week ago. I opened a bottle tonight to see how its doing and it frothed all over the place. Reading now back up nearer 1.020 and very fizzy. Do I need to keep it warm to let the secondary finish before moving it to a cold place to finish off? Any help appreciated.
 
You've bottled too soon, it would seem. Two carbonation drops is going to provide quite a lot of fizz, but the beer itself has continued fermenting, I reckon. It's happened to me, and most of us, I'm sure. What I do is use a bottle to prize the cap open very slightly, to release gas. When it stops hissing and calms down, use the capper to re-seal it.


When you ferment beer, leave it two to three weeks in the fv, ignore the kit instructions, and don't bottle til you have taken hydrometer readings on two separate days that are the same. Three days even. You need to be sure fermentation has finished.
 
To go from 1.012 at bottling to 1.020 is a huge difference that I really don't think could have come about with the addition of two carb drops to each bottle. My thinking is that at least one of your hydro readings are not correct. The fact the beer is fizzy suggests it has fermented the carb drops so the hydro reading shoudn't have jumped so much.

All considered I agree with Clibit in that it seems you have bottled too soon, perhaps your SG at bottling is the one that was wrong?

Again as Clibit said, leave your beer in the FV for at least two weeks and make sure your SG is stable for 2-3 days before bottling.
 
Before you let some of the CO2 out of your bottles you could try chilling each bottle down as far as possible - excluding freezing!- before you serve it, to maximise the CO2 in solution.
I only say this because I undercarbed a Canadian Blonde earlier this year and because of this it turned out quite uninspiring, and letting out some of the CO2 from your bottles may result in undercarbing rather than overcarbing. And they were better served chilled.
Hope it works out whatever you do.
 
The 1020 reading will probably be wrong, you can't get an accurate reading in carbonated beer.

I don't think chilling the bottles down will resolve the over-carbonation problem. If there's too much gas, some needs to be released, in my experience.
 
The 1020 reading will probably be wrong, you can't get an accurate reading in carbonated beer.

I don't think chilling the bottles down will resolve the over-carbonation problem. If there's too much gas, some needs to be released, in my experience.

I've bottled a Canadian Blonde at 10.12 with two carb drops per 500ml bottle and had no issue with over carbing, which leads me to believe the bottling SG was higher than 1.012. As a first pass I would try chilling to about 2-3C and see how that goes.
 
Thanks all, much appreciated. Does look like I bottled too soon, is it ruined then?:doh:
 
Not ruined, just gassy! You could try chilling it, if that dorsnt work release some gas. Or pour into a big jug and then fill the glass from there.
 

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