Under Carbonated 5.2% pale ale (9 weeks)

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grum_ck

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OK, I’ve read several posts on being patient (and other rules of carbonation), but I think my beer is under carbonated :eek:. I bottled 9 weeks ago, with 158g (5.5 oz) of Corn sugar in 23l (6 gal)- (as calculated by beersmith) in a 5% pale ale… bottled in 12oz bottles with caps. When I open a bottle, I get a very slight ‘sshhht’, beer pours with no head, and very low level of carbonation.
The beer was in my back room, with got a little cold weeks 2-3, but I’ve since moved it to the kitchen, where it’s 69-74F for the past 6 weeks.
I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks – do I try to add more sugar? Took a SG reading of the beer from the bottle tonight (after leaving on the bench for a couple of hours to warm and flatten) and reading was 1.006 (final gravity recorded as 1.007) – so seems all the priming sugar is gone!?
Was thinking either opening the bottles and adding little more sugar (from solution I’ll make up) or pouring all the bottles in to a keg and carbonating.
Oh, and subsequent batches have been fine…
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
I decided to try a small amount of sugar to see what happens… I opened a couple of bottles today and added 1.7g of corn sugar into them (in a pre boiled solution) and re capped, will give them another week or 2 and see how they go.
 
The FG reading is pretty worthless IMO. If the bottles were kept colder than 70 for the first several weeks then the carbonation process was slower than it could have been The fact you re-located the bottles to a warmer spot is good but will add time to the process.

DO NOT DECIDE TO DUMP INTO KEG! This will only oxidize the beer.

Personally I don;'t think you need to add ore sugar, you just need to be patient. BTW, what was the OG of this beer. Bigger beers will require more than the general minimum 3 weeks time, some take months:)

Also, don't confuse head with carbonation as while related they are not the same thing. When you pour the beer do you see bubbles rising from the bottom, that's the CO2 coming up. Head and retention are more related to the ingredients used and if you have dirty glassware or soap residue or film then the head can disappear almost instantly as you pour.
 
Next time it might be easier to try some coopers tablets. Drop one in each bottle.. But it also sounds like not enough sugar was used the first time. Just for 2.7 volumes on 5 gallons beersmith says to use 5.0 oz at room temp. I would try another oz your next time bottling...
 
Next time it might be easier to try some coopers tablets. Drop one in each bottle.. But it also sounds like not enough sugar was used the first time. Just for 2.7 volumes on 5 gallons beersmith says to use 5.0 oz at room temp. I would try another oz your next time bottling...

The OP used 5.5oz for 6 gallons but did not list temp, OG or FG of the beer, only the FG measured with the sugar already present. In addition the OP stated the original room was cold for several weeks which doesn't help.

According to beersmith, assuming temperature was 65F at 2.7 vol I got 5.77oz, I do not think the .25oz difference would be that apparent, I think the OP jumped the gun
 
Hey guys, thanks for your thoughts. To clarify, it was only 2 weeks (of the 9) where they were stored under 70 – weeks 2 and 3. And once I got the bottles warm again (week 4) I gave each a shake to get the yeast back in suspension (repeated week 7) – thought that would help.
The OG was 1.051 and FG (pre addition of sugar) was 1.007 (so not a big beer). And the yeast was White labs Californian (WLP001), on it’s second brew – as the fermentation went fine, I figured there was no issue with the health of the yeast.
I didn’t look too closely at the bubbles in the glass, but was very flat to taste, so not just a head retention problem.
The original sugar addition was based on 2.6 volumes of CO2 and added at 18C (64F) – I have several other beers that I’m happy with the carbonation level based on this.
Good point on oxidizing if dumped (OK carefully poured) into keg, the plan would be to charge with CO2 and consume with in a few weeks if that worked, so maybe not the end of the world. Will see how we go with a couple more weeks (both the bottles with and without extra sugar).
Cheers.
 
Just an update on this. Tried one of each of these (one with extra sugar and one without) tonight. The one with added sugar now has reasonable carbonation, and the one that was just left is still under carbonated – hasn’t really changed in the past 3 or 4 weeks.
Thinking I’m going to have to add a bit of sugar to the rest of these…
Cheers.
 
Well, a big case of “told me so”. Now over 11 weeks in, these have finally come good. I’m guessing that although the beer was stored at 70F, the beer must have taken weeks to get back up to temperature? And get the yeast up and running again. Makes sense in hindsight I guess.
Anyway, enjoyed a couple of these last night, and they were both well carbonated – at least what I would expect for 2.6 volumes and good solid head… will be interesting to see how the couple of test bottles I opened to add extra sugar to behave :-0 I’ll be sure to open them over the sink.
Cheers.
 

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