Over Primed?? (long)

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

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lgtg
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Over Primed?? (long)

Post by lgtg »

Hello Everyone,

I used my Beer Machine fermenter for a partial grain\extract recipe the LHBS guy prepared. It was a Stout that he specially weighed out to meet the Beer Machine's 2.5 gallon volume.

I experiemented a little bit as the fermenter has a pressure gauge on it and at six days the air release valve stopped bubbling. The gauge showed about 12psi. I put the keg in my fridge and let the coldness (40-42
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slothrob
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Post by slothrob »

If the premeasured pack of sugar was 5 oz, then you added about 1.9 oz of sugar. If your fridge was at 40
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lgtg
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Wow, thanks man....

Post by lgtg »

Slothrob,

Thank you very, very much. I will do a quick conversion of your ouce ratio to millileters to see if I lined up with your recommendation. Thanks for the future tip as well. Someone tried to convince me that what I was seeing was not really carbonation but I couldn't really believe that as I had stated, I pulled a few ounces the night before I bottled (The keg was under pressure at about 12psi) and it was lovely as far as head and carb. I have a little peace of mind however based on your help.

Thanks,

Larry
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Post by Ben Bythewood »

I am not sure how long you have been using the beer machine, but my friend and I started with one and had very little success with it. The PSI gauge was never really accurate, we got 3 out 4 batches come out sour, even though our sanitation routine was excellent. The tap valve on ours also unexplicably quit working with a beer in there and we had to siphon the beer out, which turned out being sour anyway. The only good thing it did for us was motivate us to move to a 5 gallon setup and our results from there have been fantastic. Good Luck with yours, just thought I would share my experience with this product.

~Ben
lgtg
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Thanks Ben...

Post by lgtg »

I'm actually using a Beer Machine, it's equipped with an air tight closed system. It has an air release valve that acts as an air lock. The air release valve is nestled in to the "cap" to the keg which screws onto a cup like fixture with a cloth or cardboard like disk set inside to keep foam and "blowoff" from clogging the valve. The pressure gauge is simple but works to use for rough psi readings.

I bought a Mr Beer fermenter for $10 to use as a secondary. I tried an extract kit a while ago (I'm doing partial grain now) For beer that should have some clarity, I'm experimenting with it. It worked as far as I can tell. Your right in that the Mr Beer keg is not air tight, and if your not doing a primary ferment with it, the air may find it's way in. I still think that even with most of the sugars gone, there will be a small amount of fermentation going on enough to possibly keep an "ouflow" Thanks for your insight...
lgtg
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I goofed...

Post by lgtg »

Sorry man, I thought you were talking about a Mr Beer fermenter, after re-rading your post I realize that you were talking about the Beer Machine.

I just bottled a partial grain\extract stout last night and I have tested a few ounces from the tap on the machine, to say the least, it's not the device, I mean it's every bit as good as any food grade bucket.... But I can agree that the beer mixes sold (most expensively I might add) from the Beer Machine company are weak. I've brewed two of them (the whole thing was a gift and came with three mixes so I had nothing to lose!) And all I could say was that, well, .....it was not undrinkable. I didn't rush home after work though...I can tell you that. It looked like beer, It smelled like beer, so I drank it. Learned the basic process of brewing and fermentation with it.
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