Refrigeration is lowering my carbonation

I bottled my first batch an American pale ale 7 days ago. I wanted to see how the conditioning was going so I opened one today and had beautiful carbonation. So I put a couple in the fridge to taste it refrigerated and when I opened it it had almost zero carbonation. So I opened another one that wasn't in fridge and the carbonation was yet again beautiful. I know a week is not long enough to fully condition the beer and I plan on condoning it at least another week. But why is fridge ruining the carbonation?
Thanks,

i've had this happen quite a bit, i would open 1 a week to "test" them but once you chill them all the c02 goes into solution and at 1 week your bottles aren't fully carbed yet, how did they taste? i had alot of batches fully carbed at 1 week but they tasted terrible till they condition at least 3-4 weeks

edit: read the sticky in the bottle and keg section, revvy preaches the 3 week minium at *70 because it works and saves frustration of brain !@#$ing something that isn't even wrong just needs more time, everyone has a different experience because some yeast work slow, some fast

The beer taste good but I want to figure out how to chill the beer without losing carbonation. I plan to keep conditioning but really don't understand why cooling it at this point is losing almost all carbonation. While the carbonation to the unchilled beer is awesome.

You're losing carbonation because there isn't enough CO2 in the bottle yet. Cold liquids dissolve gases better in the same way that hot liquids dissolve solids better.

What little CO2 has been produced after 1 week is noticeable in a warm beer because it is not dissolved. When you chill the beer the CO2 dissolves into the liquid. A properly conditioned beer will have enough CO2 to stay fizzy at cool temperatures. Put the beer back in the closet for 2 more weeks, and try to forget it exists.

the cooler the liquid the more CO2 it can hold in solution. So let some more time pass and they'll be carbonated even when chilled.

Science!

Sounds like I'm worrying for nothing. Thanks everyone. Cheers!

Re-upping this to see if I can “save” my beer... I put a bunch of bottled beer in fridge after one week like above... afraid I will lose the good carbonation I had. Been in for a few days. Will it skunk the beer if I remove to room temps again to let carbonation build, or am I stuck at this point with potentially less carbonated beer? If I leave in fridge for longer periods, will carbonation re-build?

Re-upping this to see if I can “save” my beer... I put a bunch of bottled beer in fridge after one week like above... afraid I will lose the good carbonation I had. Been in for a few days. Will it skunk the beer if I remove to room temps again to let carbonation build, or am I stuck at this point with potentially less carbonated beer? If I leave in fridge for longer periods, will carbonation re-build?

Vintage NY said:

Re-upping this to see if I can “save” my beer... I put a bunch of bottled beer in fridge after one week like above... afraid I will lose the good carbonation I had. Been in for a few days. Will it skunk the beer if I remove to room temps again to let carbonation build, or am I stuck at this point with potentially less carbonated beer? If I leave in fridge for longer periods, will carbonation re-build?

Click to expand...

Skunking of the beer is caused by exposure to UV light, not changing temperatures and brown bottles tend to block a lot of UV. Take the bottles out and leave them where the temp is in the mid 70's for 2 to 3 weeks to let the yeast have a chance to do their magic. Refrigeration slows biological activity which is why we refrigerate foods. It slows the bacteria and molds and it will nearly stop the yeast so the carbonation won't change if you leave the beer refrigerated.

Chill as needed

Bottles condition better at room temp

Great, thank you for the input

I've attached a carbonation chart below. It shows the relationship between volumes of carbonation in a closed vessel (bottle or keg), temperature and pressure.

Here's what's happening w/ the bottle conditioning. The yeast need up to 3 weeks at warm temps to produce enough carbonation to carb the beer. As noted above, if you shorten that significantly by refrigerating before then, the yeast will go into hibernation and you'll have a partially carbonated beer.

Beer absorbs CO2 more readily the colder it is. That's why in the chart below, the warmer the beer you're trying to carbonate using pressure to a specific volume, the greater the pressure needs to be to get it to that volume.

That's also why you should refrigerate your beer for 24-48 hours before you enjoy it. There's a lot of pressure/carbonation in the headspace of the bottle, and refrigerating allows the beer to cool and the CO2 in the headspace to be absorbed into the liquid instead of being wasted when the bottle is opened warm.

(BTW, this is why we homebrewers with keg systems concern ourselves with how cold our lines are. When you pour a beer through warm lines, and a warm faucet, you get foam. That's because as beer warms CO2 comes out of solution and as it's being poured through warm lines and faucet, warming the beer, the CO2 is coming out as foam.)

So: bottle condition in warm temps (around 70 degrees) for 3 weeks. Then chill for 24-48 hours. Then enjoy!

Wow, very cool. Thank you. I will remove the last two I have in the fridge. I am lucky though since the beers that I did cool already had decent carbonation... maybe not as much as it should have, but definitely drinkable ( I look forward to cracking one when I get home.) but I also left three liters out since the beginning, and removed a few more from the fridge this week. Guess this is the process of learning. Also interesting about the keg lines... is that why distributes kegs foam up so much when tapped? Warm weather, warm tap, more foam? Not until the cold beer cools up the lines?

Sorry, another question for Mongoose... does this chart show what “ ideal temp” and “ideal psi carbonation” for beer types. I see it includes where beers can be for each level of temp, but what is “ideal”? Say for an Amber, an IPA, a Wheat?

Vintage NY said:

Sorry, another question for Mongoose... does this chart show what “ ideal temp” and “ideal psi carbonation” for beer types. I see it includes where beers can be for each level of temp, but what is “ideal”? Say for an Amber, an IPA, a Wheat?

Click to expand...

Different styles of beers have different "ideal" carbonation levels. Usually they will be specified by the volumes of CO2 in the beer. Generally, though, the section in bright green will get you where you want to be. I'm not a big fan of overly carbonated beer, so I'll want mine to be in the 2.3-2.5 volumes area. Maybe even a little less. Others may have different tastes.

At least to start, if you aim for 2.5 volumes, you'll be in a good place and you can adjust, should you feel the need to, from there in future beers.

Vintage NY said:

Sorry, another question for Mongoose... does this chart show what “ ideal temp” and “ideal psi carbonation” for beer types. I see it includes where beers can be for each level of temp, but what is “ideal”? Say for an Amber, an IPA, a Wheat?

Click to expand...

There are plenty of carbonation priming calculators on the net. Check Northern Brewer https://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ or TastyBrew - http://tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html . These will allow you to select the type of beer you are carbonating and give suggested levels of CO2. They will tell you how much sugar to add, based on the kind of sugar and based on the temp of the beer and how much CO2 should currently be in it.

Having a similar problem, with a beer I naturally carbed in a keg. Let it sit 3 weeks at 75F before attaching to kegerator lines and beginning chill. It was terrifically carbonated with nice foam and lacing. After it chilled, it’s coming out almost flat. I have replaced all my rubber o rings, poppets, and double checked all lines for leak. Lines and cold right to the faucet. Line length is far shorter than the “balanced” system would dictate. Out of ideas.