Stir or not to stir

What went wrong? Was this supposed to happen? Should I throw it out? What do I do now?

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brewmeisterintng
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Stir or not to stir

Post by brewmeisterintng »

My brother made a batch of Hobgoblin Clone. We never stir in the priming sugars - just boil and dump into the bottom of the bottling bucket. The thought was that the swirling action from transferring from the secondary was all that was needed to mix it in.
End state he ended up with bottles of super dark lightly carbonated beer and lightly colored beer that foamed for days. It is hard to believe that the bottles are all the same batch. My guess is that the sugars didn
Jimmy Scott
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Re: Stir or not to stir

Post by Jimmy Scott »

[quote="brewmeisterintng"]My brother made a batch of Hobgoblin Clone. We never stir in the priming sugars - just boil and dump into the bottom of the bottling bucket. The thought was that the swirling action from transferring from the secondary was all that was needed to mix it in.
End state he ended up with bottles of super dark lightly carbonated beer and lightly colored beer that foamed for days. It is hard to believe that the bottles are all the same batch. My guess is that the sugars didn
BillyBock
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Priming

Post by BillyBock »

When I bottled, that was the process I used...boil up the priming sugar, dump in the bottling bucket, transfer into the bottling bucket to stir up the priming sugar into the beer and bottle. It always seemed though that bottle carbonation took a while to complete (2 weeks or more). How long have they been carbonating? Are they at a decent temperature to prevent the yeast from going dormant? As for the color difference...that's a mystery to me. After the primary it should be all well mixed together and not stratified. The only thing I can think of is possible oxidation, probably during the transfer to the bottling bucket. That would make some beer appear darker than the rest of the same batch, but it would take a little time for it to show up. Does the batch taste off? If that's it, I'd suggest placing his racking cane (with the tip) all the way down in the carboy. Also check the hoses for a good tight fit so you're not entrailing air during either the racking or bottling processes.

Hope this helps.

v/r
Bill
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brewmeisterintng
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Thanks for the advice

Post by brewmeisterintng »

My brother and I came close to the same conclusion. However we are going to
1. Replace the hoses and bottle filler as they are quite old.
2. Stir the beer slowly to mix in the priming sugars.

-James-
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