Carbonation in Primary?

BullFrog · 01-20-2010, 11:58 PM

So, I have been brewing for four or five months now. I have done two partial mashes and one AG. Two turned out better than I expected and one is still aging.

I received a Cooper's IPA kit from relatives for Christmas and brewed it up the next day. The recipe did not call for a boil, just a simple pour it in and mix it up. That said, I will spare you the details of what happened to my beer right before I was about to add it to the primary. Suffice it to say, it got contaminated and so I boiled it for 30 min.

Ok - to my point. I just bottled the beer after 26 days in the primary and noticed two things off the bat.

1) For an IPA, it is very floral and sweet
2) It is carbonated

I did not know beer could carbonate in the primary. Can someone explain this to me? Does this happen often? Is this a result of the the 300g of dextrose that was added per the kits instructions, or is this just what the kits do? and what about the "cough drops" I added to each glass bottle... am I going to be dodging shrapnel in a few weeks?

What about the floral/sweet flavor... no hops at all. As this is an IPA, I am assuming that I boiled the hops out. Is this right?

Amazing that I do two partial mashes and an AG without a hitch and screw up the cooper kit.

Anyway, if someone could clarify this for me, I will be better for the knowing.

Thanks in advance,

-BullFrog

**slomo** · 01-21-2010, 12:13 AM

You do get some carbonation in primary, should be barely noticable. The kit sounds like it was a no boil prehopped kit, and if I remember correctly boiling those type of kits could reduce the hop taste/aroma. How long has the IPA been in the bottle?

lunchbox · 01-21-2010, 12:14 AM

Assuming that you had an airlock, and the airlock was not clogged, there is no reason that I can think of that your primary would carbonate.
I'll wait to see if someone confirms this, or shows me up.

BullFrog · 01-21-2010, 12:54 AM

I would not describe it as barely noticeable carbonation. It gave the impression that you were sipping a slightly under carbonated champagne. Lots of tiny bubbles were visible.

This did have my largest fermentation to date, I had to convert it from an airlock to a blowoff tube (into sanitized pot). I then added the cleaned airlock back on after the fermentation settled a bit. It went from 1.068 to 1.018 in the 26 days.

I guess the airlock could have clogged up after I put it back on... about day 7.

slomo - I just bottled it this evening.

**slomo** · 01-21-2010, 01:03 AM

I would say that that sounds about right. Did you taste the hydro sample or a bottle? I have never used carbonation tablets or cough drops. Bubbles are different for everybody, but I have had brews that I swear after a week that they were totally carbonated, they Didnt taste great but they where plenty carbonated.

**david_42** · 01-21-2010, 02:36 PM

Beer at room temperature will retain a moderate amount of CO2. REAL ales are sometimes portrayed as uncarbonated, but that is not the case. One step of making wine is de-gassing to remove residual CO2.

As far as the hop aroma, yeah, you boiled much of it off. Since it's a Cooper's kit, the primary hop was likely to be Fuggle, which can be floral and sweet. I would have dry hopped to make up for the boiling.

**Revvy** · 01-21-2010, 02:48 PM

Your beer always has some level of co2 in it, almost from the time shortly after you pitch the yeast. But really that's NOT the same thing of being fully carbonated and conditioned.