JerryCanHibs
New Member
Hi there,
I've been lurking around and reading posts on here for a while now, but really I'm a newbie to beer brewing. I've dabbled in wine making before but I've just turned my hand to the beer... and I think in my eagerness I've gone ahead and made a really stupid error.
I did a fair bit of research (thanks for everyone's posts, this group has been really helpful) in the build up to starting the brew, and read a few things about the dangers of bottle bombs. And yet. Very stupidly, SOMEHOW, I got it into my head without really doing proper research into this (like a huge idiot), that the most important thing to do to avoid bottle bombs was to leave space at the top of the bottle when bottling a finished-fermenting brew. So, I had it firmly in my head not to over fill the bottle. I thought i'd be on the safe side, and leave quite a few inches from the top of the bottle. Of course, I added my 1 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle, and closed them off.
It was only AFTER I'd done all 46 x 500ml bottles, that I questioned myself. I researched more into the gap you should leave at the top, and the consensus was that it only needs to be 1 inch. In fact, it seems that by leaving more space at the top, I've not only opened myself up to oxidisation, but I'm more likely to create bottle bombs! Well, bloody brilliant. I'm a huge idiot.
I bottled them about 18 hours ago, so they've only been newly bottled for about 18 hours.
So, my question is; should I reopen the bottles and top them up to leave only 1 inch at the top. I would have to do this by pouring from one or two of the bottles themselves, as I emptied my whole fermentation bucket in the bottling process. I've used both beer brewing PET 500ml bottles with screw tops, and reusable glass 500ml bottles with swing tops.
Would re-opening and topping up, ruin the beer?
Would the beer in the topped up bottles be able to continue the extra fermentation and create enough CO2 to carbonate, without me adding more sugar? I've heard adding more sugar is also a bit risky.
Would I just be creating more opportunities for oxidisation?
OR .... should I leave the bottles as they are........ is it likely I'll have a ton of bottle bombs? I'm only brewing a very simple cheap IPA kit - I've kept it simple in case I manage to mess up this first batch... which now seems very likely! I'd just be gutted to have a completely wasted batch, because. Well. It's just gutting isn't it?
Would really appreciate any help with this, thanks all. Apologies if this has been asked before, I couldn't see a thread asking this.
I've been lurking around and reading posts on here for a while now, but really I'm a newbie to beer brewing. I've dabbled in wine making before but I've just turned my hand to the beer... and I think in my eagerness I've gone ahead and made a really stupid error.
I did a fair bit of research (thanks for everyone's posts, this group has been really helpful) in the build up to starting the brew, and read a few things about the dangers of bottle bombs. And yet. Very stupidly, SOMEHOW, I got it into my head without really doing proper research into this (like a huge idiot), that the most important thing to do to avoid bottle bombs was to leave space at the top of the bottle when bottling a finished-fermenting brew. So, I had it firmly in my head not to over fill the bottle. I thought i'd be on the safe side, and leave quite a few inches from the top of the bottle. Of course, I added my 1 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle, and closed them off.
It was only AFTER I'd done all 46 x 500ml bottles, that I questioned myself. I researched more into the gap you should leave at the top, and the consensus was that it only needs to be 1 inch. In fact, it seems that by leaving more space at the top, I've not only opened myself up to oxidisation, but I'm more likely to create bottle bombs! Well, bloody brilliant. I'm a huge idiot.
I bottled them about 18 hours ago, so they've only been newly bottled for about 18 hours.
So, my question is; should I reopen the bottles and top them up to leave only 1 inch at the top. I would have to do this by pouring from one or two of the bottles themselves, as I emptied my whole fermentation bucket in the bottling process. I've used both beer brewing PET 500ml bottles with screw tops, and reusable glass 500ml bottles with swing tops.
Would re-opening and topping up, ruin the beer?
Would the beer in the topped up bottles be able to continue the extra fermentation and create enough CO2 to carbonate, without me adding more sugar? I've heard adding more sugar is also a bit risky.
Would I just be creating more opportunities for oxidisation?
OR .... should I leave the bottles as they are........ is it likely I'll have a ton of bottle bombs? I'm only brewing a very simple cheap IPA kit - I've kept it simple in case I manage to mess up this first batch... which now seems very likely! I'd just be gutted to have a completely wasted batch, because. Well. It's just gutting isn't it?
Would really appreciate any help with this, thanks all. Apologies if this has been asked before, I couldn't see a thread asking this.