Carbonation drops in Young's IPA?

Hickey

Hi there,
Its been a couple of weeks since bottling my Young's IPA. I added 1 1/2 coopers drops per 500ml glass bottle, at a final gravity of 1.010. I chanced opening a bottle tonight, it was like uncorking champagne! Pop, fizz! Plus full of sediment. Are coopers drops appropriate for Y's IPA? Is it just that I've opened it early, and will the sediment ever settle???!! Any help appreciated!

BUDFORCE

Hmm, yes I have used coopers drops in Young IPA plenty of times. I have brewed that Youngs IPA loads its one of my favourites. I normally only put 1 carbonation drop per 500mil bottle but an extra half should not make that much of a difference.

I found when I've bottled my brew, 1 or 2 of the 40 or so bottles will do that, literally just explode, I think its either the very first, or last few you bottle, some of the sediment from the primary fermentation gets in the bottle and causes it to go a bit mental (here you can tell I've reached the limit of my scientific knowlege on this!) but the vast majority are perfectly fine.

You may have just been unlucky and opened "that" bottle, hopefully the rest will be completely fine.

If you do find that all of the are like that (I hope not but) it may be that it hadn't quite finished in primary fermentation yet, so some excess sugar and yeast made it in to the bottle which has built up so much pressure in there. I hope this isnt the case, but you will know if your bottles start to randomly explode!

The Youngs kits are a very high quality premium kit but they do take longer to ferment in primary fermentation than many of the cheaper kits, so you gotta be a little careful with them. I tend to give mine a good 3 weeks in primary fermentation with good temperature control to make sure all of that sugar is fully brewed out before bottling.

Good news is, in secondary fermentation, they tend to clear and develop flavours pretty quick, unlike other kits , some of which need ages to sit, these kits are pretty good after even 3 weeks, and after 6 weeks are about as good as they ever will get.

My suggestion is, give them another week in the cool, then try and open a few more, hopefully you'll find they are ok, if you open 4 or 5 and they are all like that, you may have a problem lol.

Good luck.

Hickey

Cheers, I'll give it a go (leave for another week)... though it looks like most of the bottles are chock full of sediment! God, the smell is incredible - as in fruity and great! Fingers crossed!

Hickey

Nooooo...I've got a bad feeling about this! Couldn't help myself, opened two more bottles, from the middle of the batch. Pop! Then a foaming volcano erupts bubbles until the bottle is half full. What's left is a cloudy, lovely smelling bit of dirty river water!!
Its been 19 days. I now think either the brew hadn't been fully fermented, or the fact I saw a lot of sediment flowing into the bottles via the little bottler. Either way, it appears a titanic failure. Is there ANYTHING that can be done once a brew is bottled?

BUDFORCE

How long did you leave them in primary fermentation for and was the temerature stable throughout?

Hickey

In primary for around 16 days..I added hops after it was steady at 1.010...but I doubt myself a little now. The onlyvthing I am cersin of is temp was constantly between 22-26C. Checked all the bottles..there's a lot of sediment in each and every one. Damn it!!

BUDFORCE

Ok it sounds like it may not have finished in primary.

A possible fix is to empty all of the bottles back in to the primary fermentation vessel, let it brew for another week or so, then re bottle it.

It's not ideal though and a fair bit of work, but it might do the trick.

HBO Staff might have some better suggestions, I've never been in this situation if I am honest. Sorry.

HBO_Staff

They do sound very lively and this may be due to the amount of sediment and priming sugar added, it is hard to reduce the amount of carbonation at this stage unfortunately. One thing you might try, chill the bottles right down before opening one and see if this makes it froth less, it can sometimes do the trick and would be a fix for this batch perhaps, unless you can very slightly crack each bottle open to very gradually let the CO2 escape, then once calmed open it up fully and pour carefully

Jane

Was going to suggest this - but I notice it didn't post.
HBO beat me to it :-)
This may be barking completely up the wrong tree - but have you tried chilling the bottles down in the fridge? It may give you a pectin haze, but the cold temperatures seem to reduce the fizz. Maybe worth a shot on one bottle to see what happens. Jx

Hickey

Thanks for your help guys!! I very tepidly opened a cold bottle...by prising the cap open just a little at a time. FIZZ!! At least controlled fizz, and bubbles escaping. Eventually, after a full 20min, I was able to pour. Very cloudy and a bit of sediment floating...but it was OK, drinkable. No fizz left by that time, and I was only brave enough to drink 3/4 of it. It'll be a long time drinking this batch!! Needs must!

Hickey

An update..I've drunk about 5 beers so far... Slow open...POP! FIZZ Volcano of slow bubbles but then OK. But today...I bottled in 36 500ml bottles an 2 750ml ones. I opened a 750 there.. Bloody magnificent!! Clear, nice head, no fizzing! The best I've ever made!!! Let's hope its just because ive waiyed a little longer and not that its just a bigger bottle. Right now drinking the nectar of the gods!!

BUDFORCE

Haha yeah, the Young's IPA is truely amazing.

Jane

Small bottles will mature quicker than large ones - that's the rule of thumb for wine, so I imagine it's similar to beer. Jx

Hickey

Thanks guys. Definitely the cooling of the beer reduces the "volcano effect", though bubbles still erupt slowly as I bit by bit prise open the caps. In general, they are extremely cloudy and full of sediment, but are pretty good to drink. The larger 750ml was the exception: No volcanoes, good head, clear and f#&%ing awesome!! I'll make of again in summer for sure!