Quickly chilling bottles?

I think I've realized tonight why I've been told to chill bottles for 3-4 days to let the co2 absorb back into the beer. I just got home from vacation and during unpacking, threw 5 bottles into the fridge and one in the freezer. When I opened the freezer bottle there was a small pfft which had me worried. Then I poured it into a glass. No head. Not even signs of carbonation. I took a sip and it was nice and cold but completely flat. Tell me this is because of too short a chill time and not a problem with carbonation. The first 6er was wonderful but were chilled much longer.

What's your method for priming your bottles? Neglecting to chill fully carbonated beer doesn't render flat beer.

Assuming these are regular 12 oz bottles and not some sort of resealable bottle that you've previously opened, it sounds like the beer just hasn't carbonated yet. If that's the case, take them out of the fridge -- the cold isn't helping. If other 6ers from the same batch were carbonated fine, you probably have an inconsistency with the way you're priming the beer.

Yes, I've had that experience, too. What happens is that the co2 is more easily dissolved in cold liquid. In a warm homebrew, especially one that's fairly young, the co2 more easily stays in the headspace until the beer is thoroughly chilled. So, you open a quickly chilled beer, and much of the co2 disapates when opened, leaving you a flat-ish beer with a big head.

Once a beer is "older", or has been chilled for a while, this isn't a concern at all.

YooperBrew said:

So, you open a quickly chilled beer, and much of the co2 disapates when opened, leaving you a flat-ish beer with a big head.

Click to expand...

That's why I think it isn't a chilling issue. He described a pour with no head at all.