Carbing under carbed bottles

See the results of the below experiment HERE

I just dropped a coopers carb drop in to a well chilled 12oz undercarbed bottle of cranberry wit. As soon as I dropped it in, all the nucleation sites on the sugary lump caused foaming...but I was at the ready with the trusty red barron capper and new cap.

The foam reached the top of the bottle by the time I affixed the cap, and certainly would have foamed over if it was properly carbonated. This is probably best done with two pairs of hands...one to drop the sugar in and hold the bottle, the other to move in swiftly with the cap and capper.

Anyhow, I'll leave it out at room temp , giving it a shake every once in a while to rouse the sediment to see if the yeast reactivated and processed the added sugars. I'll pop it after a week to compare CO2 to another untreated bottle.

this is reallly just an experiment to show proof of concept. I hope I can do some nose thumbing against forum nay sayers who advise to just chalk undercarbed bottles to learning. Given my prior experience with culturing yeast from bottle conditioned beers, I believe this will work just fine. If I get increased CO2, then I'll use a few more bottles to dial in the carbonation by using munton's carb tabs, by adding 1, 2 and 3 tabs to each bottle. I would have gotten these to start the experiment...but the LHBS didn't have any when I went. bummer.

Aardsma Aale

Aardsma Aale
One of my friends showed some interest in homebrewing, after I he had sampled some of my early attempts. So on one of his few days off in the summer, I took a day off myself, and we brewed a hodgepodged belgian style beer.

Inside. July 31st.

I think the temperature/humidity achieved amazonian rainforest levels. It has spent some time in the bottles now, and a few of the remaining 750ml bottles were toted with me last month to his wedding in Arizona. Though he preferred some of the other beers I've made in the past, this one is very drinkable, dangerously so. This is a clean, crisp 'strong blonde' maybe...has a subtle sweet orange and coriander spiciness, but I'm unable to unravel it from the yeast profile. Fermented quite dry due to use of the sucrose and mesquite honey. Actually bottle conditioned it with the honey as well.

Here's the recipe, and following, some interesting pics of the ongoing fermentation/clearing.

Aardsma Aale
Belgian Blond Ale

Date: 7/31/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: JC
Boil Size: 5.87 gal
Asst Brewer: Aardsma

8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 59.65 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.02 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 7.02 %
1 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 7.02 %
12.0 oz Steel cut oats (1.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
1.00 oz Argentian Cascade [3.70 %] (75 min) Hops 12.1 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer Select [1.50 %] (30 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 1.0 min) Misc
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 7.02 %
1 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 7.02 %
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787)

Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.075 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.32 %
Bitterness: 15.7 IBU
Calories: 343 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.4 SRM

24hrs after pitching-krausen had formed and seemed to fall already a little. You'll also notice I didn't do a very good job of getting the wort off the trub. The fermenting beer spent its life in my bedroom, where the A/C was on round the clock, to keep the fermentation temps reasonable. oh, and so I could sleep comfortably in the humid boston mid-summer.

48hrs after pitching-krausen has already fallen, but yeast is clearly very thickly in suspension. I believe you'd say this was turbid. yep.

Day 5, you can see the yeast starting to flocculate.

Day 17, (had racked to secondary on Day+11) and now has cleared very well.

Bottled, some with euro crown cap, others in cork/cages, and a couple 'test' bottles for opening sneak peak tastes early in to the bottle conditioning.