Ive learned the hard way to be extra certain that fermentation is complete before bottling.
Thank you sir! How critical is the temp entry in these calculators? Will I have a bottle bomb or under carbed beer if it’s off by much? For instance, with the above temp, I end up at 4.34 ounces of corn sugar. If I were to enter 71 degrees, it would be 4.27.
I doubt you’d notice that shall a change. Even a full ounce difference probably won’t cause bottle bombs.
That would be about a 1% difference in the final carbonation level.
Correct me if I’m wrong someone. But assuming the beer is totally done, the priming sugar adds around 3 gravity points. So it should be evident how important it is to be sure it’s done. If it still has 3 points to go and you add 3 points, you’ll end up with a mess and a waste of beer.
You are definitely right, bottling before fermentation is complete can lead to bottle bombs. I don’t think FLBrewer is going to bottle just yet. He said he thinks fermentation is 95% complete. Sounds like he is still planning to wait a bit longer.
PS. That’s a lot of gravity readings, FLBrewer. You need one of this morebeer gravity beerbugs.
Copy that. I guess it sounded to me like he was ready to go. For what its worth, normally I take a reading before I pitch. The next one isnt until im pretty sure its done. Like no airlock activity and nothing on the surface. Then one more a few days later to be sure. Its rare that I take more than 4 total
Nope, not bottling! What’s a morebeer gravity beerbug?
Jim, when you say it adds 3 points are you saying it actually subtracts 3 points? For instance, I’m at 1.012. If it were completely done, the sugar would bring it to 1.009?
Other Jim means when you have beer ready to bottle at 1.009, then you add priming sugar it will bring the gravity to 1.012. The yeast will then eat the priming sugar which will return the gravity to 1.009.
beer bug is a little gadget that sits in your green beer and monitors gravity constantly and sends the results to an app.
It would actually bring the gravity down to 1.008 in that case, due to the additional 0.5% ABV. 
You and your “math”
Right, and point being that if you primed that same beer when it was at 1.012 then what you put in the bottles is 1.015 and will continue to work until its reached 1.009 (or 1.008 if you do correction math) and you’ll have twice as much carbonation than you wanted.
I’ve read the posts below , and I’m still confused. I’ve got a low-tech operation here.
Brew it, set it in a dark corner for two weeks , take a hydrometer reading, and if that plus a taste indicates I’ve got alcohol in it, prime and bottle it.
My only temp control is the thermostat for the furnace/ac for the house. If fermentation is complete --which it should be after two weeks in normal circumstances – then I would think the temp I should use in calculating priming sugar would the warmest temperature my thermostat was set at.
Do you agree?
By the way, I recently primed a sweet stout with Domino sugar cubes (one per 12 oz bottle) with my thermostat set at 68 F as described above with really good carbonation after eight days. Much better results than I’ve had by adding priming sugar to the bottling bucket.
That is going to be my method of choice for priming from now on as long as it continues to work as well as it did for this batch.
Yes
ONE last thing here…volume of CO2 on the priming calculator states 2.4 for an IPA and 2.2 for a DIPA. My beer finished at 6.83 and it is a clone for a DIPA. Thoughts on the CO2 volume?
it’s a pretty minor difference really. the bigger beer wants a bit less co2 because high carbonation + fuller body = perception of even fuller body.