safe to prime tab?

[barley ben]

ok heres the deal. im just about done with my dry stout. i racked into my bottling bucket. ive only made a few batches in my life but what ive done every time and it worked is add the corn sugar to the bucket and let the siphoning tube sit in a way that it swirls the beer in the bucket to dissolve the sugar as i rack( keep in mind, not in a way that churns in oxygen. just a slow swirl). so anyway when im done racking, i give the beer a few more stirs and then i bottle. when im done almost all the sugar is still on the bottom. this never happened before. i bottle and then cap 6 at a time so by the time i realize all the sugar is still in the bucket, all the brew is capped already. that was 3 days ago. hoping that enough dissovled to still carbonate my stout which doesnt need to be very carbonated i checked the pressure in one bottle. pretty much nothing!!!
anyone have any pros or cons of sanitizing some more caps, opening each bottle and adding 1 prime tab and recapping one by one. i really dont know what the chance of infection will be since i cant really re sanitize the bottles with the beer in them. maybe i should just drink the 2 cases of flat beer to teach me a lesson!!!

im sure you know what prime tabs are but just in case you dont, they are small tablets of dextrose thay you can drop in each bottle instead of dissolving your sugar of choice before bottling. they suggest 3 per 12 oz so i figured just drop 1 in to help a bit.

thank for any suggestions... barley ben

[quantum24]

well i cant answer your question about the tabs, but next time you are racking boil your sugar in 1 cup of water for a few minutes than add that to the bucket. this way all of the sugar is dissolved into solution and will mix with your beer

[paul84043]

My first question would be why is your sugar still sitting on the bottom of the bucket?
Do you boil your sugar in water do sterilize and dissolve it, or do you just pour it straight into the bucket?
I was taught initially to boil a cup or so of water, or use bottled water, or whatever you do for your brewing water...I boil for 10 minutes, dump in the sugar, stir until dissolved, boil again for another 5 or so. Let cool for a few minutes, it's not that big a deal because your adding so much cool liquid, plus it cools off on the bottom of the bucket.
Pour it into the bucket and proceed as normal.
When the bottling bucket is full, sitr gently for 20 or 30 seconds to ensure a good mix.

As for your current situation, if you add primetabs now, you could end up with a bunch of bombs. If you wait another week or so and still have no carbonation, then you may consider repriming or drinking it flat.

[barley ben]

i had read some where that i cant remember that you could do it the way i did. ive done it several times and it worked. i dont know why i didnt this time. ill tell you what though, its the last time i do it that way. let me tell ya, it really sucks when you finish up the last stage of a batch and realize that one of the very important parts of a great beer is still lying at the bottom of the bucket. and lets face it, you cant just pour them out and start the process over again.
so anyway, about the prime tabs... that is what im planning to do. im gonna wait a bit more and see how the pressure is. one good thing i think about using them to fix the problem is the fact that you usually use three to prime a bottle. if i dont have any pressure by this weekend(one week) im gonna still play it safe and just add one per botte. that should give me low carbonation which should be ok considering that it is a stout. heck, i thought it was pretty good flat when i drink the sample that i used to get a gravity reading. it can only get better from there!!!!

[barley ben]

oh yeah and trying to stick up for my stupidity, when you rack the way i did, it is kind of like stirring the beer for the whole 15 minutes or so that it takes to do the transfer. it sounded like a good idea when i heard it and worked great a few times. what i think happened is the tube moved and stopped swirling the beer. i didnt notice because i had a lid covering the bucket. so basically i just filled up and didnt mix in the sugar.
oh well, what can ya do but learn from your mistakes!!

[paul84043]

I transfer the exact same way, I don't see that gentle action causing any problems.

I actually forgot to add the sugar completely my second batch, I got so excited and busy, it never ocurred to me....I only had to pop the tops on about 20 regular bottles, the rest were Grolsch flip tops.
One prime tab sounds like the way to go, I think you'll be fine.

We are actually growing accustomed to the taste of the semi-flat green beer as well....

[barley ben]

yeah, i think flip tops are my next investment. they just seem like the way to go. spend a few bucks and get 48 of the 16 oz ones. never have to cap again. just gotta remind people that if i give them a six pack that they have to return the bottles. that could get costly after while if ya dont get them all back.

well thanks for the info and the reassurance that everything will be alright!!!