My chimay red clone did not carbonate

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.

Jackjama

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
Location
Houston
I tried my first bottle of a chimay red clone. It fermented for 30 days and hit the final gravity as it should. I added sugar acording to The beer recipitator web site .

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?15094634#tag


19 days after bottling i opened my first bottle. It had little to no cabonation and was on the sweet side. It has been at about 66 degrees after bottling.

What do i do now?
 
As most others will most likely reply, 19 days isn't long enough.
Give it a good 3 to 4 weeks if not more.

I've only brewed a handful, so I'm no expert. But remembering my first
batch, after bottling I decided to open bottles at certain intervals to see how
the bottle carbing works. I opened one at 7 days and 14 days and they both had little to no carbonation. At 21 days I was suprised... fairly well carbonated, a big difference! after 4+ weeks I had tasty well carbonated beer.

I think it's a lag thing. It takes a while for the (probably dormant) yeast to start assimilating the new sugars and fermenting. But once they kick in they'll get it done.

:mug:
 
Thanks, inwill open another in a few weeks. All is not ast. There was definatelybsome tasty beer under thar sweet taste.
 
What was your FG and SG? Did you chill your bottles for at least 48 hours prior to opening? All that C02 is in the head space, it needs to be chilled to drop into your beer. Most HBTers live by the "at least 21 days at 70 degrees" for carbonating in bottles mantra put forth by revvy. Also, high gravity beers will take longer.
 
Osg was 1.07. Fg was 1.015

I only chilled one bottle for four hours. Sounds look more time is the answer?
 
Time is definitely the answer. Chill another bottle really well for 48 hours, you will probably have a lot more carbonation than before, but it still might not be fully carbonated. 1.070 OG is not a monster, but will may take a little longer to carb up. If the next bottle you chill is not carbed enough, wait a week between trying bottles until they are ready, in the mean time, brew another batch to keep your mind off it.
 
You can calculate your carbonation time using this chart:

chart.jpg


Seriously, through, the 2-3 week carb/conditioning guideline is for beers in the 1.04-1.05 OG range. Yeast work more slowly in higher ABV environments, so more ABV, longer carb and condition time! 1.07 OG will definitely take 4-5 weeks to fully carb.
 
Thanks topherm. That was a very scientific explanation. Sounds like there is no reason to be cocerned and everything is going as expected. I bottled the centenniel recipe from this site at the same time. It was already very drinkable. I started it two weeks later and it was ready at least two ealier as your graph predicts.
 
Back
Top