How long does beer take to carbonate?

Bottle and carbonate with corn sugar. My wife asked me how long it takes after bottling for the beer to be carbonated and ready to drink. I had no idea, so I turn to you all.

It will depend on the gravity of the beer, temp, etc. But a general rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70 degrees. As Revvy will point out, some bigger beers can take a few months. Some light beers will be ready in a week or two. There's no hard and fast answer, so give it a couple weeks and pop one open to see where it stands.

Usally two to three weeks. But your mileage may vary. There are factors other than carbonation that dictate how long you should wait.

Generally I pop one open after two week to see how it is, and then decide whether to put them in my drinking rotation or give them longer.

I should clarify why I asked. I had always read wait 2-3 weeks. I wasn't sure if it was ready after a couple days and you waited let the flavor develop more or something along those lines.

TexasSpartan said:

I should clarify why I asked. I had always read wait 2-3 weeks. I wasn't sure if it was ready after a couple days and you waited let the flavor develop more or something along those lines.

Click to expand...

Well, that is part of it. Just because it has fully carbonated doesn't mean it's really done. The bottle conditioning phase can really help off flavors mellow out and bring out all of the qualities in your beer. In most cases, longer is going to be better. That doesn't mean you need to let the beer sit for six months or anything, but it never hurts to keep a few six packs at room temp for a while even after the beer is ready for drinking.

Mine always seem to take three weeks. Not so much for carbonation but for taste, they are green.

If it's not a big beer, I've noticed it carbonates within 3-5 days.

+1

I just did an amber and tested one after 3 days and it was fully carbonated.

im going to wait the full 2-3 weeks though to make sure the flavors are right

I drank Hefeweizen yesterday that was in the bottle less than three days. Oddly enough most of my beers are fully carbonated in less than a week, and very few get much better after that.

A typical rule of thump is 2-3 weeks for the yeast in the bottle to convert the priming sugars into CO2, and for that CO2 to be fully absorbed. Many beers need to age aditional time for certain flavors to mellow out, and other flavors to fully develop.
I also find that 2 days in the fridge after carbonating means that the beer will hold the CO2 better, and the bottle will not foam over the second I open the cap.

nothing new to say expect "it depends" but your taste buds are the solution. Try opening one after a week, then 2, then 3.

I opened 1 to sample on my latest batch after a week and it was great.

Everyone says (and I read in the books) 2-3 weeks for carbonation. I just bottled today and am leaving for 8 weeks in about a week, so my beer would be sitting at room temp for around 9 weeks. Is that going to hurt it? I could have my wife shove it in the fridge in a couple weeks, but I don't like bothering her with my beer making. She cleans up after me enough....

Thanks,
Dave

dmichaell said:

Everyone says (and I read in the books) 2-3 weeks for carbonation. I just bottled today and am leaving for 8 weeks in about a week, so my beer would be sitting at room temp for around 9 weeks. Is that going to hurt it? I could have my wife shove it in the fridge in a couple weeks, but I don't like bothering her with my beer making. She cleans up after me enough....

Thanks,
Dave

Click to expand...

No, that's fine. I leave my beers at room temperature (well, often cellar temperature if I feel like hauling them to the basement) for weeks and weeks and it's fine.

dmichaell said:

Everyone says (and I read in the books) 2-3 weeks for carbonation. I just bottled today and am leaving for 8 weeks in about a week, so my beer would be sitting at room temp for around 9 weeks. Is that going to hurt it? I could have my wife shove it in the fridge in a couple weeks, but I don't like bothering her with my beer making. She cleans up after me enough....

Thanks,
Dave

Click to expand...

Nope it will be fine. I bottled a batch just before heart surgery and lord knows when I'll actually get to drink it. Probably after it's been in the bottle for as long as yours. I've had bottles stored at room temp for a couple years that were fine. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if I don't still have a few bottles tucked in a closet that might be 5 or more years old.

Hi,

I have a amber ale I've been conditioning for about a week in a 6 gallon carboy. I plan to give it one to two more weeks before bottling in growlers. Should I be letting it sit for about two weeks in the growlers to carbonate? I wanted to condition, then bottle so I wouldn't have too much sediment on the bottom of my growlers.

Best

nicktay said:

Hi,

I have a amber ale I've been conditioning for about a week in a 6 gallon carboy. I plan to give it one to two more weeks before bottling in growlers. Should I be letting it sit for about two weeks in the growlers to carbonate? I wanted to condition, then bottle so I wouldn't have too much sediment on the bottom of my growlers.

Best

Click to expand...

Um, you don't want to bottle in growlers, they aren't meant to hold the pressure of bottle carbing/conditioning...there's a thorough explanation of why you shouldn't, here.

nicktay said:

Hi,

I have a amber ale I've been conditioning for about a week in a 6 gallon carboy. I plan to give it one to two more weeks before bottling in growlers. Should I be letting it sit for about two weeks in the growlers to carbonate? I wanted to condition, then bottle so I wouldn't have too much sediment on the bottom of my growlers.

Best

Click to expand...

listen to Revvy, you don't wanna try to bottle condition in a growler. at best the top will give and beer will gush out, at worst, "BOOM" growlergrenade!

After about 3+ weeks is it cool to go from the upper floors to the cellar for temps in the 50's rather than the fridge?

I had a chimay red the other day that gushed considerably on me when it came from cellar temps and maybe being in the fridge for a bit would have helped.

I have always brewed beers that were anywhere from 4-6% ABV. Mine would be carbonated within a week if stored at room temp. But I would usually let them sit another few weeks to age a bit.

However, I recently brewed a Belgian dark strong ale that is 10.25% and when I went to bottle, I realized had no priming sugar. I looked up the conversion to table sugar and used about 3.25 oz for 4.5 gallons of beer.

I opened a beer after a week, it did a little ffttt, but was very flat.

So it is my first time brewing a very strong beer and my first time using table sugar. Really, what I need is for someone who isn't me (or SWMBO) to tell me RDWHAHB. Although, I have no ready homebrews right now.

heiman5 said:

+1

I just did an amber and tested one after 3 days and it was fully carbonated.

im going to wait the full 2-3 weeks though to make sure the flavors are right

Click to expand...

One of the reasons most people think home brew taste like crap is because it not left for long enough in bottles. Leave you home brew for at least one month. you will see a much better head retention it have and the bear will taste much better, but do not take my word for this next time you make beer open on after one week another after 2 weeks so on and so on you will see it get better with age. I am making some lager now and I am going to leave it for 6 months. the think is home brew is about making beer better than what you can buy not just making some crap to say I have made my own beer...

One of the reasons most people think home brew taste like crap is because it not left for long enough in bottles. Leave you home brew for at least one month. you will see a much better head retention it have and the bear will taste much better, but do not take my word for this next time you make beer open on after one week another after 2 weeks so on and so on you will see it get better with age. I am making some lager now and I am going to leave it for 6 months. the think is home brew is about making beer better than what you can buy not just making some crap to say I have made my own beer...

Michaelabuys said:

the think is home brew is about making beer better than what you can buy not just making some crap to say I have made my own beer...

Click to expand...

Well, I don't have to leave my beer in bottles a month (or six months?!?) to have them taste good and I wouldn't consider my beer "crap". That's a pretty arrogant and ignorant thing to come in and bump an old thread to say!

I would put most of my beers up against just about any commercial beers and I think you would be unable to tell them apart. I'd like to hear of one craft brewery that keeps their lagers bottled for six months before distributing! By then, the beers will be deteriorating due to age.

I am new to this so I was all itchy to try my beer after one week after I bottled it. It is not carbonated at all. I put a little over 1.5 tee spoon of corn sugar per liter and now I’m thinking may be it is not enough? If it would not get carbonated after 2 more weeks, would it be possible to open bottles (they are plastic) and add some more sugar, or it does not work that way?

Try priming in bulk, rather than in each bottle. I siphon mine direct from the primary (I rarely use a secondary) into the bottling bucket and add Dried Malt Extract, dissolved in about a cup full of boiling water (do ths in a pan on the stove). When it hits the boil, dump it into the bottling bucket and give it a big stir. You can find the correct amount of DME here.... http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ and then you are guaranteed the correct and uniform amount in each bottle.

Carbonated? in my experience 6-7 days, but you should always wait 2 or 3 weeks at least, the flavour improves in that time.

Thank you guys for you input. Here is the update to this. Now 2 months later this beer is in exactly the same state of carbonation as it was after a week (more like no carbonation). So I realize that carbonation is not improving with time. When yeast eats all the sugars that’s it.

Just my experiences;

Lighter brews that fermented out fast with low amount of krausen and were very clear in the fermenter after only a short time (week or less) seemed to carbonate more quickly. (hiss, smoke and bubbles) The head on the pour usually is lacking in the short time but improves in a relative short amunt of time.

Heavier brews that fermented slowly, produced a heavy krausen and took a few weeks or longer to clear up to the point where I felt it was time to bottle tend to carbonate more slowly. After 2 or 3 weeks there will be a pop upon opening maybe some smoke but there seem to be very little carbonation in the beer itself and rarely any head. A month later things improve and there are bubbles in the beer and some head. Two or three months and they are ready to satisfy my tastes.

A lot depends on what goes on in the fermenter and for how long the beer is conditioned in it before it gets primed and bottled.???

I've recently started on a case of Imperial nut brown ale that went in the bottle in early April and it is crystal clear (if you hold a million candlepower light behind the glass LOL), rich in flavor with a great long lasting. A few bottles tasted at one month intervals showed the results as above. Now it's time to enjoy what patience created.

OMO

bosco

Okay - I'm pretty new. I have my first batch in bottles, and I just racked my second batch over tonight and added my dry hops - so far both batches taste great.

My first batch I made with the help of a friend, and we didn't really do anything in the way of measurements. This batch is a Mac n Jack clone, and according to my specific gravity readings - as of tonight, it's at 5.78% alcohol.

BUT - what MY question is - is what is "big beer"?

Weiz-Ass said:

BUT - what MY question is - is what is "big beer"?

Click to expand...

"Big beer" is just slang for a beer with high ABV (usually above 7-8%/V) or as the parameters is inherently interconnected an OG +1.075 or so..

It requires pitching more yeast and typically carbonate slower..

I'm a bit worried about my batch of Amber Ale. This is my first batch. Pre-bottle taste was good. I've tried a bottle every week. Here's my findings.

Week 1: Taste good, poor carbonation (expected)
Week 2: Didn't taste it
Week 3: Plenty of carbonation, funny chemical like smell, funny taste.
Week 4: Still plenty of carbonation, funny chemical like smell, funny taste.

The beer kind of smells like Star San, and I'm guessing that's the taste too. I used Star San to sanitize my bottles. I mixed 10 ml with 1 gallon of water. I left the bottles on the rack to drain for about 30 minutes before I started bottling. I did notice that some of the bottles still had bubbles in them, but everything I've read said Star San wont affect the taste.

Any ideas what's going on? I'm thinking of taking a bottle to the homebrew store to see if the guys there can tell me what's going on. Hopefully I can find answers here first. Thanks.

flywatt said:

The beer kind of smells like Star San, and I'm guessing that's the taste too. I used Star San to sanitize my bottles. I mixed 10 ml with 1 gallon of water. I left the bottles on the rack to drain for about 30 minutes before I started bottling. I did notice that some of the bottles still had bubbles in them, but everything I've read said Star San wont affect the taste.

Click to expand...

Did you follow the directions on the bottle? By my calculations you should only put about 5-6ml per gallon... this should help

I've always followed the directions on the bottle and never had a StarSan taste to my brew. Best bet is to let it sit and maybe it will age out.

SliverXZennon said:

Did you follow the directions on the bottle? By my calculations you should only put about 5-6ml per gallon... this should help

I've always followed the directions on the bottle and never had a StarSan taste to my brew. Best bet is to let it sit and maybe it will age out.

Click to expand...

Exactly. 10ml is almost double what you should use. Over 6ml and it's no longer safe as a no rinse.

m3n00b said:

Exactly. 10ml is almost double what you should use. Over 6ml and it's no longer safe as a no rinse.

Click to expand...

Damnit. Is the batch lost? I just bottled a second batch using the same conversion. Last time I take a recommendation from the "pros" at the homebrew shop. ****!

flywatt said:

Damnit. Is the batch lost? I just bottled a second batch using the same conversion. Last time I take a recommendation from the "pros" at the homebrew shop. ****!

Click to expand...

Wow, well... it's hard to say. Best bet is to try it and see. At the very least you can write it off as a learning experience.

Also, just a tip. I would hesitate to hear it from a homebrew shop, especially if it says it on the bottle. Always check the product for instructions first on a chemical for proper mixing ratio. Good luck!

A word of advice.. I'll properly get heat for this on HBT but this is one of the reasons I never use no-rinse as a "no-rinse".. I always rinse my bottles afterwards with boiling water.. (It's clean and without chemicals)
As I see it we're exposed to enough artificial stuff as it is and there's really no need not to trust boiling water as a disinfectant - its been doing the job forever..

Hjandersen said:

A word of advice.. I'll properly get heat for this on HBT but this is one of the reasons I never use no-rinse as a "no-rinse".. I always rinse my bottles afterwards with boiling water.. (It's clean and without chemicals)
As I see it we're exposed to enough artificial stuff as it is and there's really no need not to trust boiling water as a disinfectant - its been doing the job forever..

Click to expand...

I've been using Star-San exactly as directed on the package. So far I haven't had any issues with off-taste. Still - if you have the means to use boiling water, there's no reason it won't work for you - and as pointed out, no chemicals. Brew On

flywatt said:

I mixed 10 ml with 1 gallon of water.

Click to expand...

That's about double the recommended dilution I believe. Still should not impact your brew unless you did not train prior to filling...IMHO

flywatt said:

The beer kind of smells like Star San, and I'm guessing that's the taste too. I used Star San to sanitize my bottles. I mixed 10 ml with 1 gallon of water.

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread but this might help others who find this starsan discussion.

http://www.calczilla.com/brewing/sanitizer-dilution/

.2oz or 5.9ml per gallon

Hi, I am just getting back into brewing. My living situation required I keep most of my brewing, wine making and sausage making equipment in storage for over 4 years. I did buy some Walmart buckets and a spigot or 2 and brewed some at a friends house, but he must have had mice because there was some beer missing from the buckets.

This Star-San thread is interesting because I just used it for the first time. 1/5 oz per gallon is pretty hard to measure but I could not find a "no rinse" clause in the instructions so I did the best I could. I used a spray bottle and a catch basin and caught the solution for later use. I usually use a no rinse from Mr. Beer but the Star-San seems easier.

I have more in this thread but it goes way off topic so I will stop here and reroute my post to a more appropriate thread.

ronb454 said:

This Star-San thread is interesting because I just used it for the first time. 1/5 oz per gallon is pretty hard to measure but I could not find a "no rinse" clause in the instructions so I did the best I could. I used a spray bottle and a catch basin and caught the solution for later use. I usually use a no rinse from Mr. Beer but the Star-San seems easier.

Click to expand...

As long as you mix it to the correct ratio I've had zero problem with Starsan not being rinsed. That said I do let it drip out of any containers relatively thoroughly. When I sanitize bottles right before filling I flip them over to let any extra drops out that have formed as the bubbles pop. At the ratio recommended though the beer/wine is more than enough to dilute minor remnants.

I've never tasted off tastes from it even in light beers.