Carbonation times

How long does it really take for beer to carbonate? Do I have to open one up to check it? My recipe says a min. of 15 days, but 4 to 8 weeks is ideal. Can you help me out?

Are you speaking of the conditioning time? It's best to give them 3-4 weeks, if not even more, especially if they are more complex beers.

I don't think it takes more than a few days for the yeast to eat the sugars to make CO2. But it's the melding of the flavors and maybe something with the CO2 working with the beer itself.

1-10 weeks. Depends on many things.

So after one or two weeks, throw one in freezer for 45 minutes, then in the frig until you are ready to drink it. If it's not carbonated, repeat in a few days or a week (and repeat again and again) until it's carbonated.

It will change in carbonation and flavor. But I assume you are just starting out. So enjoy the experience and find out what happens over time.

It depends on multiple factors including ambient temperature, amount of sugar you added at bottling, yeast strain and even the alcohol content. I always give my bottles a minimum of 3 weeks, I've opened some after 2 weeks and they've always been under carbonated.

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Lock_Down said:

It depends on multiple factors including ambient temperature, amount of sugar you added at bottling, yeast strain and even the alcohol content. I always give my bottles a minimum of 3 weeks, I've opened some after 2 weeks and they've always been under carbonated.

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+1. It is tough to wait but I definitely have noticed it takes 2-3 weeks minimum to get the carbonation you want. Just make sure that the sample you want to try you leave in the fridge for at least 24 hours to let the CO2 go into the beer.

Thank you all for the advice. I am new to brewing so I have a lot to learn.

So I guess an even dumber question, what's the difference in conditioning and carbonating?

thebeerroom said:

How long does it really take for beer to carbonate? Do I have to open one up to check it? My recipe says a min. of 15 days, but 4 to 8 weeks is ideal. Can you help me out?

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I usually go by the 3&3 rule. Three weeks in primary and 3 weeks carbing in the bottle. For basic beers three weeks is plenty for allowing the beer to finish fermenting and also gives some time for the beer to clarify a little. The three weeks in the bottle for carbing should be plenty unless you're working with more complex flavors that need time to develop.

That said, depending on many factors (as mentioned by an earlier post), my record for turning a beer around from brewing to drinking is 2.5 weeks, but that was for a cream ale (about as simple as it gets) and very warm temps for carbing up.

I think during conditioning it's both conditioning (melding) and carbonating, but it takes the cold temps to force the carbonation into solution.

Ahh, didn't know that.

I think the time frame for conditioning is more about melding the flavors and allowing for some mellowing. I doubt it takes the yeast to eat that small amount of sugar for carbonating.

Drinking a Wit right now that I bottled 5 days ago. Tastes great. Still waiting on an IPA I bottled 2 weeks ago. Lots of variables...

I have a long way to go. How and where do you learn all this stuff?

No doubt, and the more simple and less alcohol the brew the less time it'll take.

Reading, mostly here, and asking questions.

Nice, I really appreciate everything.

I always bottle a couple of little Coronitas (7oz) from each batch to check carbonation w/o opening a full beer. I put a sixer near the baseboard heater which keeps the beer around 75° and I've had simple session beers fully carb up-great head and lacing-in as few as 3 days! I do think bigger, more complex beers benefit from more time, but a normal gravity (1040-1060) brew is usually really good after about a week if you can find a nice warm spot. I never wait 3-4 weeks to try any beer...it might get better with time, but I'll sacrifice a couple bottles for the sake of scientific sensory analysis!

So I have a brown ale that I bottled 2 days ago. The only way to check if it's ready is to open a bottle and try it?

Yep. Some fill a soda bottle so that they can feel how hard it is to get an idea of whether or not it's ready.

So is there such a thing as waiting too long? I mean I know some beers are better the longer you keep them bottled, but can some go bad?

Not really. There are certain styles of beer that benefit from early consumption, such as pale ales, IPA's, hefe's, etc. The beer doesn't carb any more because it sat longer. Once it's carbed, it's carbed.

thebeerroom said:

So is there such a thing as waiting too long? I mean I know some beers are better the longer you keep them bottled, but can some go bad?

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Hops flavors and aromas tend to taper-off after extended periods of time. Some extract additives (vanilla, etc.) will also "fall-out" of the beer after time. But in terms of going bad, that typically only happens if an infection took hold during the fermenting/bottling process.