Beer temperature at bottling/carbonation calculator

I am using the beer carbonation calculator at hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Since I am cold crashing the beer in a fridge for three days before bottling, am I really using the fridge beer temperature for the calculator?

It seems that based on the temp, the software is calculating what residual CO2 is already in the beer, cutting the added sugar by more than half. Is this right? (If you care to explain it in a little more detail please do!)

Does three days in the fridge really count as "Beer temperature at bottling"?

Just bumping and rephrasing the question.

In the carbonation calculator, if you say your beer temperature at bottling is 40F rather than.. say 70F, the level of sugars added drops almost 50%.

Should I just follow these orders, even if I am cold crashing for a few days before bottling? The bottles will be stored at room temperature after sealing.

iambeer said:

Just bumping and rephrasing the question.

In the carbonation calculator, if you say your beer temperature at bottling is 40F rather than.. say 70F, the level of sugars added drops almost 50%.

Should I just follow these orders, even if I am cold crashing for a few days before bottling? The bottles will be stored at room temperature after sealing.

Click to expand...

The reason is that you have more CO2 dissolved at colder temps (which is why you chill beer for a couple days before serving). If you bottle cold beer, you need less priming sugar because you have more CO2 in solution.

Do NOT use the cold crash temp!

I really dislike those calculators for several reasons- one is because they have you carb "to style", often wrongly so you end up with undercarbed beer (1.3 volumes for a stout? Really? That's flat). Or worse, bottle bombs (4.8 volumes for weizen? In a bottle?)

Anyway, do NOT use the cold crash temp. Use the fermentation temperature, or the highest temperature the beer reached during or after fermentation. The reason is this- the calculator tries to "guestimate" the probably amount of residual co2 in the beer. But once fermentation is over, more co2 is not produced so keeping the beer at 40 degrees for two weeks doesn't magically create more!

In a lager, for example, a common fermentation schedule is this: 50 degrees for 10 days/60 degrees 2 days/ 34 degrees 60 days. In that case, you'd use 60 degrees, or the temperature at bottling IF higher.

I honestly never use the calculators anymore after a few fiascos.

I use .75 ounce of priming sugar per gallon for lower carbonation, and 1 ounce per gallon for higher carbed beers. That's it. And I'm happy with the results.

If you're going to use a priming calculator, use the fermentation temperature and keep an eye on the "suggested" carb levels. And use your gut instinct- if something seems too high or too low, it probably is!

That is just frigging brilliant. I love this stuff.

The issue is how much residual CO2 is still in the beer before bottling. I may be wrong, but if CO2 off gassed when the beer was at 70, cold crashing it to 35 or 40 is not going to magically put the lost CO2 back into the beer, unless it is kegged and on CO2. I believe you use the highest temp before cold crashing, though I have seen experienced brewers argue otherwise because Palmer said to use the temperature at bottling (even though cold crashing was not addressed by Palmer).

Yooper said:

Do NOT use the cold crash temp!

If you're going to use a priming calculator, use the fermentation temperature and keep an eye on the "suggested" carb levels. And use your gut instinct- if something seems too high or too low, it probably is!

Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks for that bit of information--very helpful.

Sigh, late again.