what does a carbonating bottle look like?

I was wondering if you can tell how carbonation is progressing if you watched the bottle (if you were to use a clear bottle). Are there obvious visual stages, just as if you watched the fermentation stage? If the yeast is all at the bottom of the bottle, does that mean the yeast is no longer working? Would you ever see any krausen-like thing at the top?

I've never tried to watch the carbonation stage, so just thought I'd ask if anyone else had.

Never seen anything...

From my experience, there are no visual cues. Just pop one in a couple weeks, that will tell you if they are carbing.

I get nervous when I see visual signs of carbonation in the bottle. In my experience, that means IED. Whenever I see signs like you've described, I immediately open one just to make sure all hell isn't breaking loose.

Yes, you should see a light lees layer in the bottom. And a krausen isn't out of the question either. But your question is pretty generic, if you follow directions and do what you're told, you don't have to worry about it.

I've never noticed any action inside the bottle. It's almost like magic

First few days after bottling I see little bubbles rising to the top when I gently shake the bottle. After about 4 days I don't see anything but the carbonation continues to improve beyond that.

I have heard people recommend that when you bottle, do one plastic bottle. You could do a small coke bottle. Then you can squeeze it to get an idea how the carbonation is going.

I keg, so I'm no expert at bottling.

I bottled Tuesday night and in my curiosity couldn't stop myself from testing one on friday. Bottle had no visible signs looking at it from the outside. No layer of yeast, nothing. Popped it and it whooshed but it was still flat.

Looked at another one today (sunday) and it looked the same from the outside. Popped it and it was carbed pretty decently, just not quite there yet though.

jldc said:

I have heard people recommend that when you bottle, do one plastic bottle. You could do a small coke bottle. Then you can squeeze it to get an idea how the carbonation is going.

I keg, so I'm no expert at bottling.

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That's a really good idear.