carbonated in the carboy?

Did a high gravity, dark hazelnut brown ale. It's been in the carboy about two weeks, stopped bubbling about a week ago. I took a reading and its at 1.012 which should put me at 5.2% ABV. I tasted it and it tasted very carbonated, is there something wrong?

It hasn't been bubbling, how can it possibly be carbonated?

i guess it could carbonate if CO2 wasn't able to escape, and CO2 was absorbed into the beer.

Let's see:

1. What was your TG supposed to be?
2. What was your OG?
3. Usually by 3 days to 2 weeks in primary it's fermented
4. only if you added dextrose or malt to the carboy will it referment
and possibly cause carbonation. But it needs to plugged to carbonate.
5. hard to carbonate in a carboy unless it was sealed tight, but doing so
might cause a very big bottle bomb not a good idea.

I'd rack it to secondary or bottle it depending on what your recipe called for and OG and FG readings per recipe.

marosell said:

Did a high gravity, dark hazelnut brown ale. It's been in the carboy about two weeks, stopped bubbling about a week ago. I took a reading and its at 1.012 which should put me at 5.2% ABV. I tasted it and it tasted very carbonated, is there something wrong?

It hasn't been bubbling, how can it possibly be carbonated?

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By "It's been in a carboy for about two weeks" I'm guessing that you mean in secondary, as most brews don't sit in primary that long with the exception of wheats. it could be slightly carbonated, but I'd still bottle/keg it as usual.

If your krausen gunked up on your airlock then it could carbonate.

Beer retains some CO2 even at room temperature and pressure. The cooler the brew, the more is retained. Why this produces a carbonated mouthfeel in some styles and not others is a mystery.

Yep, CO2 will dissolve in the beer, and that's what you feel and taste.

It sounds like your gravity is about right for that style, so I don't think you have anything to worry about.


TL

That's not really high gravity, btw.

If you are fermenting at a cool temperature then your beer will likely have a low level of carbonation. This is normal as liquid will absorb CO2 when sitting in air with a high concentration of it. This is how you force carbonate. Most of my beers taste slightly carbonated when I sample them in the secondary.
I have taken to leaving most of my beers in the primary for 2+ weeks. A number of brewers including Jamil, who has won more brewing awards than few could hope to match, are having good luck with long primarys and often with no secondary. I figured I would give it a try also.

Craig

ohiobrewtus said:

By "It's been in a carboy for about two weeks" I'm guessing that you mean in secondary, as most brews don't sit in primary that long with the exception of wheats.

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This is hilarious.

Beer in a fermenter will always be at saturation for its particular temperature since it has CO2 bubbling through it during fermentation. Assuming that you are fermenting around 66F, the beer would have just under 1 volume of CO2. For reference, that is around the level of a Scottish ale and about half to 2/3rds what you would find in most Brittish style ales. If you drink a lot of those beers, this would seem somewhat carbonated to you.

Bearcat Brewmeister said:

Beer in a fermenter will always be at saturation for its particular temperature since it has CO2 bubbling through it during fermentation. Assuming that you are fermenting around 66F, the beer would have just under 1 volume of CO2. For reference, that is around the level of a Scottish ale and about half to 2/3rds what you would find in most Brittish style ales. If you drink a lot of those beers, this would seem somewhat carbonated to you.

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Great Scott! will this dumb thread never end? Guess not, since i and others keep posting to it........

This is extremely late, but this is my first post and thought I could contribute: if your airlock is full of sterilized water to the point that the movable cone hits the cap before releasing air, then the wort is under a slight constant pressure (because the carboy needs to reach a greater pressure to push the air down further to release the off gassing). This extra pressure should serve to force-carbonate the beer a bit while in the carboy. I am on my paltry third brew, a Belgian tripel, and this same thing happened to me so I figured i'd contribute my scientifically-educated guess as to why it's happening to both of us.

ohiobrewtus said:

By "It's been in a carboy for about two weeks" I'm guessing that you mean in secondary, as most brews don't sit in primary that long with the exception of wheats.

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??


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