Beer carbed in secondary

So, I brewed up an English Style Pale Ale about the middle of May. I transferred it to the secondary right around the end of May when it reached my expected FG of 1.015. My three kegs in the keezer have all been full since then, and my 4th backup keg was full of Altbier. So, this particular beer sat in secondary for approximately 6 weeks. I am not sure how the seal from the stopper and the airlock became airtight, but when I killed a keg last night I went to transfer it and it had dropped to 1.013 and was noticeably carbed. Now, we are not talking carbed carbed, it probably would have been flat even for an Englishmen, I am sure we are talking less than 0.75 volumes of CO2, but certainly noticeably carbed. I pulled a sample to take the reading and I noticed it was foaming up. I didnt think much of it, just figured there was some residual sugar or something on the side of my test cylinder and blew it off. However, then a little head formed and there was a significant amount of bubbles. Enough bubbles that I had to wait before taking my reading because I thought they were lifting the hydrometer. Then, looking through the beer I could see carbonation in the secondary carboy. Of course I tasted my sample, and it was essentially flat, but with a certain noticeable amount of CO2 dissolved in it.

Anyways, I thought it was interesting. I wonder how close to fully carbed you could get a beer in a carboy? I am sure they could hold a nice amount of pressure. If you tranfered your beer within say 5 points of being done and let it sit for a month or so, I wonder if it would be pretty close to carbed?

If you could seal the carboy, you could probably get it pretty close to fully carbed for many styles - maybe 2.0 volumes? But I don't think carboys are pressure vessels, and the thought of a 5g bottle bomb is pretty ugly.

Plus, you'd lose a lot of the CO2 when you transferred.

Bike N Brew said:

But I don't think carboys are pressure vessels, and the thought of a 5g bottle bomb is pretty ugly.

Plus, you'd lose a lot of the CO2 when you transferred.

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Both very good points.

my first apfelwein was slightly carbonated when i took my first sample. it was quite tasty!

one thing we've been discussing is transferring to a keg near the end of primary. you could blow off the yeast after everything settles, then transfer naturally carbonated beer to another keg in a closed system. just a fun way to emulate some commercial brewing setups. it would also allow me to use my keg fridge for lagering

Bike N Brew said:

the thought of a 5g bottle bomb is pretty ugly.

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+1 on that. However, you could find out by using a cornie as a secondary and using a regulator as an indicator of pressure in the vessel. I've read a thread on doing that sometime ago. However, I cant find it. There is a way to put a sort of "limiter" so that pressure over say 10lbs would blow off. interesting thought.

If I ever lager I will probably do this, or set up a spunding valve on a 15.5 keg with 10 gallons in it and do the pressurized fermentation that has been talked about here, that way you can carbonate naturally and save some Co2 in the process, plus being very sanitary.