Sigafoos
Well-Known Member
I'm beginning to think that there's an anti-carb aura in my house.
My first brew was a porter, extract with steeping grains. Barely carbed but I thought it might be because I screwed up elsewhere (didn't boil long enough)
My second was a raspberry wheat, extract with raspberry flavoring. It was moderately carbed but with no head retention, and the bottles' carbonation quickly declined as time went on. I thought it could be because it was an extract, who knows.
I brewed a hard cider that went the way of bathtub hooch at 10.5%. It didn't carb at all. I thought it was either because I left it on the yeast too long (2+ months I think, this was during my 'oh yeah I should brew again... next week' phase that lasted 6 months) or because it was so high in alcohol.
So, each of these on their own seem like they have a good excuse, but when added up... I bottled my alt two weeks ago, and hoped that as it was a partial mash it'd be better. But, two weeks in, there's a bit of carbonation feel on my tongue but still no real carbonation to speak of.
Let me take a break at this point to say, I know: 21 days @ 70 degrees. My house is actually probably 65ish (Buffalo needs to warm the eff up), but while I'm not expecting it to be perfect yet, given my history -- and that I'm going to be bottling my first AG in two weeks that I'm very happy with and don't want to screw up now -- I'd like to figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong. Like I said to Soperbrew in chat, I know I can buy carb tablets but this doesn't seem like a complicated concept, you know? Here is my method (I've already spotted one potential error thanks to Soper, but just to be sure I wanted to get everyone's opinion):
- Boil a pint of water
- Add priming sugar, stir (pre-measured by LHBS, they've all been kits thus far)
- Dump into bottling bucket
- Rack the beer onto it quietly, using that magic tool the autosiphon
- Bottle using a wand, stirring periodically
I did forget to stir for my raspberry wheat, which I thought might be a problem, but I didn't get any bottle bombs.
Now, when Soper was walking me through what to do he said 'you boil the sugar, cool and dump it in right?' and I responded 'No, I don't cool... son of a *****, I'm killing my yeast, aren't I?' I wanted to make sure it was still mixed together when I racked my beer onto it... so I may have shocked them into not working for me.
I also admit that I didn't put them in the fridge for as long as is recommended; for the alt, I've only chilled them for about 2-3 hours before opening (one at one week, one at two). I know this will also help carbonation, but there wasn't a big hiss that said there was undissolved CO2 hanging around at the top.
So, I know, there are things I can do better (though in my defense, I did just figure out the scalding hot priming solution part 15 minutes ago). it's just frustrating when I've yet to have a beer I'm really satisfied with, and having this mostly be due to something as easy as bottle conditioning. So, while I think I know what I've done wrong now, does anyone have any other idea what I could do better?
My first brew was a porter, extract with steeping grains. Barely carbed but I thought it might be because I screwed up elsewhere (didn't boil long enough)
My second was a raspberry wheat, extract with raspberry flavoring. It was moderately carbed but with no head retention, and the bottles' carbonation quickly declined as time went on. I thought it could be because it was an extract, who knows.
I brewed a hard cider that went the way of bathtub hooch at 10.5%. It didn't carb at all. I thought it was either because I left it on the yeast too long (2+ months I think, this was during my 'oh yeah I should brew again... next week' phase that lasted 6 months) or because it was so high in alcohol.
So, each of these on their own seem like they have a good excuse, but when added up... I bottled my alt two weeks ago, and hoped that as it was a partial mash it'd be better. But, two weeks in, there's a bit of carbonation feel on my tongue but still no real carbonation to speak of.
Let me take a break at this point to say, I know: 21 days @ 70 degrees. My house is actually probably 65ish (Buffalo needs to warm the eff up), but while I'm not expecting it to be perfect yet, given my history -- and that I'm going to be bottling my first AG in two weeks that I'm very happy with and don't want to screw up now -- I'd like to figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong. Like I said to Soperbrew in chat, I know I can buy carb tablets but this doesn't seem like a complicated concept, you know? Here is my method (I've already spotted one potential error thanks to Soper, but just to be sure I wanted to get everyone's opinion):
- Boil a pint of water
- Add priming sugar, stir (pre-measured by LHBS, they've all been kits thus far)
- Dump into bottling bucket
- Rack the beer onto it quietly, using that magic tool the autosiphon
- Bottle using a wand, stirring periodically
I did forget to stir for my raspberry wheat, which I thought might be a problem, but I didn't get any bottle bombs.
Now, when Soper was walking me through what to do he said 'you boil the sugar, cool and dump it in right?' and I responded 'No, I don't cool... son of a *****, I'm killing my yeast, aren't I?' I wanted to make sure it was still mixed together when I racked my beer onto it... so I may have shocked them into not working for me.
I also admit that I didn't put them in the fridge for as long as is recommended; for the alt, I've only chilled them for about 2-3 hours before opening (one at one week, one at two). I know this will also help carbonation, but there wasn't a big hiss that said there was undissolved CO2 hanging around at the top.
So, I know, there are things I can do better (though in my defense, I did just figure out the scalding hot priming solution part 15 minutes ago). it's just frustrating when I've yet to have a beer I'm really satisfied with, and having this mostly be due to something as easy as bottle conditioning. So, while I think I know what I've done wrong now, does anyone have any other idea what I could do better?