Question about Bottle Conditioning in my first-ever Homebrew

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Kunal Vanjare

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Hello guys,

So my first ever BIAB homebrew, which is a 5L Citra IPA is in bottling now for around 36 hours. This morning I saw some bubbles on the surface of the beer. I am using swing top bottles and at a temperature of around 19-20 degrees C.

I hit my OG perfectly, which was around 1.05. But after 2 weeks of fermentation, I decided to check my FG which was at 1.03, whereas the recipe called for an FG of around 1.015.

I never got any airlock activity because I used a bucket, whose lid wasn't sealed most probably. Also I had around 5 Litres of beer in a 10L bucket.

On bottling day, there were no yeast rafts on the surface, so I assumed the fermentation was over.

Also, I miscalculated the priming sugar quantity because I lost around a litre of my beer due to trub losses (i expected to lose around half a litre).

Hope I have not created bottle bombs here :(

Are bubbles during bottle conditioning normal? How long do they normally last? When should I be worried?

Also, I am out of town for work starting from 14-18 December. Should I just put them in a box because there won't be anyone to keep an eye on the progress and I dont want beer all over my room (if it does explode :confused:)

I have also filled about half a litre in a PET bottle so as to be able to check the carbonation level. Might just open it up next week and taste the beer.
 
So did you bottle at 1.030??
If so, that seems very high, especially if your fg was supposed to be 1.015, I'd say either you had a stuck fermentation or your beer just wasn't finished yet.. Definitely put them in a box and be careful when handling them.
The priming sugar calculation being off by half a litre or so isn't anything to be massively worried about though. I always find there's a little bit of leeway with that.
 
Wow, 1030 is high to bottle as Fury said, it seems like fermentation had not finished!
 
If it's swing tips I would open them and realease the pressure before resealing. I have only ever seen bubbles in the surface of bottles that have not been capped correctly.
As already said 1.030 is way too high to bottle
 
I often see a ring of bubbles whilst conditioning. My most recently bottled (AG#149!) has been sat near a radiator to speed it up in the hope it's drinkable by New Year and has a good ring around each one. As said, 1.030 is very high for bottling. How hard is the PET bottle? You'll need to do quite a bit of pressure relief if all your figures are correct.
 

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