Please sayI just need to wait a little longer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

choosybeggar

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
230
Reaction score
20
Location
Mercer Island
I'm usually a keg/force carb guy so bottle conditioning isn't my bag. I bottled my russian imperial stout on 2/10/13. Yeast was wyeast 1968. I wanted about 2 vol CO2 so I added .95 oz sucrose to the 2.5 gal beer then bottled. After I realized I underdid the sugar (for the calculation I used the temp the beer was to served at rather than the current temp of the beer). I figure I should have added about 50% more sugar. So, after a week of conditioning (room temp ~68F), I popped all the bottles open (22oz) and added a single carbonation drop. That was three weeks ago. Opened a bottle yesterday and it is undercarbed (some CO2 but not enough).

So is four weeks enough time for carbonation magic to occur? Is a big beer like this just needing more time? Should I sit on my hands for four more weeks?
 
Well for a typical gravity (ie 1.040 to 1.050 OGs) figure no worry until after 3 weeks at 70F. For higher OG's - which I assume a russian imperial would be.. .maybe in the 1.080? I had to wait 6 or more weeks for a beer once, and I can't remember what the gravity was... above 1.060.

So my thought is to wait a while, you've only had 4 to 5 weeks, and your temps might be to low
 
I am not sure but I have read on here that the carbonation tablets are made for 12 oz bottles. If you added them to a 22oz bottle it might not be enough - BUT - considering you needed 50% more carbonation, maybe it will work out. Id say to give it more time and see what happens. The more you mess with it the more you might have problems. Hopefully you will be ok.
 
I did a imp stout about a year ago and bottle conditioned. It needed a good two and a half months to get right. Put it away and forget it.
 
2 volumes is not much, even though it seems like pretty close to 2.5 volumes it will taste mostly flat. I find bottled beers really should be around 2.5 (or higher for style) but not less. 2 volumes or lower is better for nitro beers and cask ales.
 
Back
Top