carbonation question

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TheH2

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Okay, my beer has suffered from being too carbonated so based on previous threads here I used this site (http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?9196539#tag) to try and calculate how much sugar to use. Well, apparently the site doesn't work b/c after 15 days the beer is flat as can be (temperature between 66 - 70 degrees). So, should I add carb tabs?

I made 5 gallon batch and used .6 cups of corn sugar.

On a somewhat related note, this is for the pumpkin ale which I spent way too much time on. Partial mash with fresh pumpkin, sparge was slow/stuck numerous times. I will also never use pumpkin again so I would like to enjoy it the one time I did. Although next year I might use sweet potatoes instead.
 
actually, .6 cups for 5 gallons sounds about right...you really want weight not volume for the sugar amount, but .6 cups should be pushing 5oz dry weight.

is this bottled or keg'd?
did you test more than one bottle? did you stir the sugar in or make a sugar/water solution?
are you sure your cap(s) sealed tight? or keg lid if it was keg'd?
 
Yeah, I tried two different bottles. The second one I tried was out of a Sam Adam's bottle which I've never had trouble with.

My process is the same as always, boil two cups of water, add sugar, and boil for 10 minutes. When done add 5 gallons of my uncarbed beer and stir, then bottle. I used a gram to cup conversion. It actually came to .5 something cups but I put a little extra in because it called for a lot less sugar than I've previously used.

I doubt swirling the bottles will do anything b/c I've never had to in the past. I'd also like to have some ready by Christmas (it was supposed to be ready by Thanksgiving but oh well). There is seriously no carbonation.
When I opened the bottle it sounded good (nice popping sound) and a little mist came out, not much. But when I poured, nothing. And of course it tastes really flat, not a spec of carbonation.
 
I bottled it 16 days ago. Usually I drink after two weeks and there is plenty of carbonation but this could be a result of me having over carbonated beer.

So here is what I'm going to do. Go home, give all the bottles a little twirl to get the yeast moving and then wait another week. If no carbonation after another week (23 total days) than I'm going to buy carb tabs. Does this sound like a good idea or would three weeks be too soon?
 
keep them at 70F for a week so the yeast stay plenty active.
any sediment forming?
i agree they must be sealed or you wouldn't even hear a 'hiss' when opening.

what's the ABV %? did you perhaps exceed the yeast's tolerance...or come really close, which would slow them down on the priming sugar?
 
Thanks for all the responses.....

The ABV is just over 6 percent and I used American Ale Wyeast, so yeast tolerance shouldn't be an issue.

The temperature in my basement is 68 degrees. I'll move them to a closet somewhere upstairs where it is a little warmer.

There is a decent amount of yeast (at least I believe it is yeast) at the bottom of the bottles. Is this good or bad? I've never really paid much attention to the bottling b/c it has always worked out.

Thanks
 
68 might be slightly on the cool side. the fact you've got some sediment forming is a good thing.

get em in the mid 70's for a week and test another bottle.
 
So it has been close to 6 weeks. I've swirled the bottles, increased the temperature and still very little carbonation (I actually have a little trace on the glass though...very little).

So, do I add carb tabs? there is sediment on the bottom. Is there something that I can add to get it to carbonate quickly, like a few days? Who wants to drink Pumpkin ale after New Years?

Also, I've heard that All-spice has some oils in it that makes carbonation take longer, anyone heard of this before? I did use allspice.
 
I use that carbonation calculator all the time and it works great. One thing though if you carbonate to lower volumes the temperature you serve your beer at becomes much more critical. If you carbonate a British Bitter to ~1.5vol and then serve it at 33F straight from your fridge it will taste flat, thin and lifeless. Serve it at 55F and it is creamy, flavourfull and lively and the carbonation is apparent.

GT
 
Get thosse beers to 72 degrees.

Give the cases a gentle rocking every day to agitate the yeast.

They'll get there.

And no...don't just add sugar. You have to dissolve, boil and cool.
 
Maybe you just need to redefine your definition of a properly carbed beer :)

Just kidding.

That should be plenty of priming sugar tho. I just bottled an English Bitter and I used about 2.75 Oz of Corn Sugar. I did not weigh it however, I scooped out 5.5 even tablespoons, which should be ROUGHLY around 2.75 oz.

Anyways....the carbonation is definitely lower than an American style beer, but it's spot on to the style.

I even gave a few bottles to Macro drinkers and they thought it was just right.

So, I dont think it's the amount of priming sugar if it was .6 cups. Maybe it's temperature, bad seal, or just not enough time.
 
Alright, well I just purchased some carbtabs and some dry yeast, being shipped here soon. I will hold off using it. Normally I'm very patient but I really want to drink my brew over the Christmas.

I guess I could always put the dry yeast to use later and the carbtabs, well they were only 3 bucks.

That being said, I'll run the heater down there and get the temperature up above 70 and will lightly shake the 12 packs a bit, and wait. You guys know a lot more than me. I will also try having the beer sit out a bit before pouring and consuming to get the temp up.

Thanks
 
TheH2 said:
...
Also, I've heard that All-spice has some oils in it that makes carbonation take longer, anyone heard of this before? I did use allspice.

I've never heard that before, but I was having a similar experience with a pumkin spice ale. I was wondering if it was something in the pumpkin that was causing this, but have not heard anyone else complain about flat pumkin beer.

I kegged it a couple of days before Thanksgiving and it stayed flat for the longest time (more than 3 weeks). I finally upped the psi to 20 (and left it there) to see what that would do. Finally, this week it is pours with a good head and has decent carbonation. It is still kind of light though (mouthfeel), but it tastes fine-good balance of spices and pumpkin.
 
A few weeks later and it is still a little flat. It is drinkable though and the flavor is pretty good. So at least when I give it away I don't give homebrews a bad name.

Next up Fat Tire. I'm very excited about the Fat Tire Wyeast. Brew day on Friday and I'm going to put together a mash tun before rather than use stuff from my kitchen. I'm very curious to see how this turns out as opposed to the other one I did with a different yeast (I got the recipe from the Beer Captured book).
 
I've got the same problem. My sweet milk stout has very, very little carbonation after two weeks of bottling, with sugar carbonation. It tastes great, but flat. It's been sitting around 55 degrees, so maybe it was too cold?

Also, I put twelve bottles in the fridge last night. If I take them back out will the yeast come back to life or have I killed it?

And as a last resort, I can uncap them and drop a tab in each bottle? This is my first batch, kinda sucks that its turning out like this.
 
I am wondering if my beer is ever going to carb, my power went out in all this snow and my brew dropped down to around 45 degrees....should it be ok?
 
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