Carbonation temp?

Ok, my brew has been in the bottles for a week.... No carbonation.. The sugar just made the beer really sweet.... The room is quite cool(basement)

Does the temp affect the process? I used the coopers sugar tablets(first time)... This has never happened before... I use pop top bottles... I've done everything as I should have... It just doesn't seem to want to carbonate... So weird...

It's been in the bottles for 7 days...

There is one simple reason why your beer's not ready after one week...

it's too soon.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Lower temperatures take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

DON'T PANIC!!! (mods, we REALLY need a Hitchiker's Guide emoticon...)

Now that you are busy not panicking, Colder = slower conditioning. Follow Revvy's advice (on many points!) and condition 3 weeks @ 70*

Be patient and give the yeastie beasties time to work. If you added sugar, they will eat it and give you the desired carbonation.

Rev, this is hilarious. Apparently you beat me to posting your advice

Well, I'm not panicking... It just never took this long to get bubbles.... Iknow the rules.... Never give up, always give it time...I guess it's stronger than I thought... Thanks for the advise... I guess I shall wait...

Suex said:

Well, I'm not panicking... It just never took this long to get bubbles.... Iknow the rules.... Never give up, always give it time...I guess it's stronger than I thought... Thanks for the advise... I guess I shall wait...

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Young grasshopper, you are passing out of Noobphobia on the path to Brewvana. On this road it can, at times, be very difficult to overcome your natural anxiety but you have made great strides.

Continue to brew with confidence that the Yeastie Beasties will not fail you, repeat your mantras (Iknow the rules.... Never give up, always give it time...I guess it's stronger than I thought... Thanks for the advise... I guess I shall wait...), and RDWHAHB :rockin:

Sorry, I have trouble containing my natural smart assedness after a day of football and great beer

I'm turnin up the furnace...... Now while I have your attention... Does extra hopps make it stay cloudy.. I triple hopped this brew and dry hopped it as well.. Hollertau, goldings and sazz(someone will want to know) in a pilsner....

A few firsts with this batch... It's my first cloudy batch... I'm exited:cross::cross:

What do you mean triple hopped?
As far as cloudiness that could be low flocculating yeast (what did you use?) or just trub and hops particles. Pellet or whole hops? Did you pour your wort through a strainer or a nylon bag/ paint strainer?

TANSTAAFB said:

What do you mean triple hopped?
As far as cloudiness that could be low flocculating yeast (what did you use?) or just trub and hops particles. Pellet or whole hops? Did you pour your wort through a strainer or a nylon bag/ paint strainer?

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I hopped the wart for about a 20 min boil(sazz)then rehopped it for a 30min boil(holertau)then dry hopped the primary(goldings), the grains were in there own cheesecloth bag but no I diddn't strain anything, Its never done this before... I used pellets. Now the reason I asked about the cloudiness, I had a regular beer kit(black rock IPA) and I gave it a bunch of extra hopps, and it took about 45 days to clear.
This brew has been in the secondary for about a month and in the bottles for a week..I'll check on it before christmass... If it doesn't clear, I'll live...as long as it carbonates..

Typically additions are referred to by how long they go in the boil. The first hops you added are the bittering hops and are a 60 minute addition (if boiling for an hour). The 30 minute additions are called flavor hops and the aroma additions are last, typically added in the last 5 minutes to 0 minutes (or flame out) of the boil. Dry hopping is another thing altogether, imparting flavor, aroma, and bitterness but without increasing IBU's.

When I brew I pour all my wort from the kettle through a large 5 gallon paint strainer into my fermenting bucket. This strains the wort for hops, coagulated protein from the hot and cold breaks, and any grain particles that may have found their way through the grain bag. If you just throw your hops in the boil this straining process can get slow as the hops particles will clog the nylon strainer. You can minimize this by putting your hops additions into a nylon bag while boiling. Some people have made DIY gizmos for this (search Lil Sparky) and some just use a binder clip to keep the bag from touching the bottom and scorching. You can use a nylon bag with some sanitized fishing line to dry hop as well, keeping even more particles from clouding your brew.

Adding these steps to your process will help to clear the wort before pitching the yeast. Adding irish moss to the boil will help particles fall out of suspension, clearing the beer. Yeast strains have an impact as well with highly flocculating strains clearing but with less attenuation (less alcohol, more sweetness) and low flocculating strains that are highly attenuative (dryer, thinner beer) but take a long time to clear. Finally, take care when you rack your beer for bottling. Keep the siphon above the trub and slowly lower it as the volume drops. If you have left your beer for some time or even cold crashed it, you will find you have a tighter yeast cake. Some strains/ conditions even enable you to almost vacuum beer off the cake with your siphon w/o picking up too much trub and yeast. If it is not that compact, leave a little beer behind when you see the siphon start to pick up cloudy sediment.

Hope that helps!!!

One of the best ways to achieve greater patience is to beef up the pipeline and brew often. When I have 6 or 7 beers kegged or bottled, I don't even think about how long it will be until the next beer is carbed up. If you have just one or two beers going, you tend to worry and to pay way too much attention to them.

pvh99 said:

One of the best ways to achieve greater patience is to beef up the pipeline and brew often. When I have 6 or 7 beers kegged or bottled, I don't even think about how long it will be until the next beer is carbed up. If you have just one or two beers going, you tend to worry and to pay way too much attention to them.

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Hmmmmm, I guess I'll have to start buying more Grolch(bigger bottles, no capping).... But that makes sense, I'm in there every second day...at least when I'm aging beef it's ok to check on it from day to day....

Thanks for the helpful advice everyone...