Bottling carbonation

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Sonnie

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Alright so I'm extremely new to home brewing and just finished my first batch on my own. I brewed a pale ale and went with bottling on my first go. It's been a bit over a week since I bottled them and I've found that my carbonation between bottles is terribly inconsistent. Some are WAY over carbonated(as in you crack a bottle and it erupts with foam for several minutes) and others are nearly flat. I used two separate types of bottles, long necks and stubbies, and found the long necks to be over carbonated and stubbies are flat. My only theories are that I left different amounts of air in the different bottle types or possibly the end of my bottling batch got the majority of the priming sugar. The long necks were used at the end. Does anyone have any thoughts on what could cause the inconsistency??
 
The sugar can fall to the bottom of the bottling bucket. I recommend stirring it well with out any splashing. Did you?

More headspace will lower the carbonation as more CO2 will end up in there and not in the beer.
 
A week is not nearly long enough to be checking carbonation. You need to let them sit at least 3 weeks at 70 degrees, then refrigerate for 3 days before opening.
 
One week is the perfect time. Worst case it's undercarbed and a little sweet form unfermented priming sugar.

One week may be enough. Just don't expect the beer to be carbed properly or that the taste is what it would be if you left them alone for another couple of weeks.
 
One week is normal for me. The two points for carbonating don't take long for healthy yeast.

I'm not going to argue about waiting longer for not crrbed beers but if it's overcarbed now it's not going to be getting any better.

If you don't think carbonation can happen in less than a week you are wrong (and in good company.)
 
"Carbonation" can complete in a couple of days. What takes time is for the beer to absorb that CO2 that's sitting in the head space...

Cheers!
 
Unlike kegging CO2 is produced within the beer, not in the head space. It is absorbed better than even with a stone. Some escapes to the top but not as much as you might think. Head space is calculated for and the pressure changes with temperature.
 
My first post :)

I've only brewed about a dozen batches, but I always found carbing in bottles to be good after about a week. If you didn't stir your priming sugar in good enough (without aerating), inconsistencies can happen. Also, leaving uneven amounts of headspace in the bottles can cause that. If u use a bottle filling wand, that'll help u get even amounts of headspace across all your bottles. one last thing is that keeping your bottles in an area that doesn't change temp is really important. U want temps as consistent as possible. Good luck on your next batch, and drink all them overcarbed beers before they pop!
 
i had troubles with bottle carbing until i did two things: bought a scale to measure my sugar and putting my sugar solution into the bottling bucket and racking on top of it, positioning my hose so that it created a mild "swirl", mixing itself evenly. since that it's been consistent and good.
 
Hmm. Reading your post - all the tall bottles are OK and the stubbies are flat. That tells me it was not inadequate mixing of the bottling sugar. I'll bet the stubbies had a slightly different cap size or did not fit into your capper as well. A poor seal on the cap results in flat beer. Possible?
 
Not saying what anyone SHOULD do, but I bottled every one of my batches this year and the only ones not well-carbed in a week have been high ABV (8.5+%).

"All your home brew are belong to us!"
 
I got this inconsistency when I was brewing my first few batches...mine were all the same bottles too. I found that I simply needed to heat my honey (I don't use sugar) up more so that it truly dissolved first, and really swirl it around the pot before adding my beer. I haven't had an issue since, but I have no idea if that was truly my problem.
 
unionrdr said:
Did you make a priming solution? When during the racking stage did you add it?

I did but I feel like I must not have mixed it well enough because of the uneven disbursement.
 
day_trippr said:
Wait - it's been barely a week and you're already cracking those bottles?
Are they even cold yet?

Cheers!

Oh I know I'm guilty of being over anxious, but none the less you shouldn't receive such extremely opposite results after any amount of time.
 
Malticulous said:
The sugar can fall to the bottom of the bottling bucket. I recommend stirring it well with out any splashing. Did you?

More headspace will lower the carbonation as more CO2 will end up in there and not in the beer.

I stirred but probably not evenly enough.
 
benderbeerman said:
My first post :)

I've only brewed about a dozen batches, but I always found carbing in bottles to be good after about a week. If you didn't stir your priming sugar in good enough (without aerating), inconsistencies can happen. Also, leaving uneven amounts of headspace in the bottles can cause that. If u use a bottle filling wand, that'll help u get even amounts of headspace across all your bottles. one last thing is that keeping your bottles in an area that doesn't change temp is really important. U want temps as consistent as possible. Good luck on your next batch, and drink all them overcarbed beers before they pop!

Even though some are flat they're still delicious! Ive just put a disclaimer out there to whoever wants to try them.... Open it over the sink.... But I think you've got it with not mixing enough...
 
Brewham said:
Hmm. Reading your post - all the tall bottles are OK and the stubbies are flat. That tells me it was not inadequate mixing of the bottling sugar. I'll bet the stubbies had a slightly different cap size or did not fit into your capper as well. A poor seal on the cap results in flat beer. Possible?

Definitely a possibility but when bottled all the caps felt the same so I don't know if that's the exact issue. I tipped every few during the process to check for leaky seals and didn't find any...
 
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