Undercarbed and Overcarbed?

Finally got to drink my first brew! Very tasty, buddy and I put down about 10 relatively quickly. I'll post pics and impressions later, but I noticed something odd with the carbonation.

Some were not quite carbed yet; not flat but low head while some others had a big foamy head that billowed up over the top. We had one gusher that basically drained itself in the sink. When their was a head, it was think and almost creamy.

The beer was a Brewer's Best Red Ale kit, so it was primed with the bag of dextrose that came with the kit. 2 weeks in primary, 3 weeks in bottle, and 2 days in the fridge before opened. I sanitized all the bottles in the dishwasher (brand new with a "sanitize" setting + added heat) and bottled out of that.

From what I understand, the undercarbed with eventually fix itself, but are they all destined to become gushers?

Not necessarily. I would have recommended a little longer in the primary fermenter to make sure all the sugars were gone before you primed and bottled. I have seen this when racking onto the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. By dissolving the sugar into hot water, dumping it into the bottling bucket, and then racking the beer onto it in such a way as to make a swirling motion it should thoroughly mix the sugar in. It doesn't always work that way so for your next beer I suggest you use a long handle slotted spoon and slowly (so you don't mix air into the beer) stir the beer and sugar. Once I started doing that my bottles all seem to carb up evenly.

Nope. more than likely the fact that some gushed and some were under is really just because they're just on the cusp of being ready.

Inconsistant carbonation, usually simply means that they are not ready yet. If you had opened them a week later, or even two, you never would have noticed. Each one is it's own little microcosm, and although generally the should come up at the same time, it's not an automatic switch, and they all pop on.

A tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

If you watch Poindexter's video on time lapsed carbonation, you will see that in many instances, before a beer is carbed it my gush, that's not from infection, or mixing of sugars, but because the co2 hasn't evened out- it hasn't been pulled fully into the beer. Think of it as there's a lot of co2 being generated and most of it is in the headspace, not in the beer, so there's still "over pressure" in the bottle, so it gushes when it is opened.

But when the beer is truly carbed it all evens out, across the bottles.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw]time lapse carbonation - YouTube[/ame]

You just caught some before they evened out, and others had. The 3 weeks is kinda just an average, some take longer some sooner.

Revvy,

Would you suggest that if I've got them in a closet, and a few are against the wall and a few aren't (only 1-gallon batch), I rotate them after 1 week?

Revvy said:

If you watch Poindexter's video on time lapsed carbonation, you will see that in many instances, before a beer is carbed it my gush, that's not from infection, or mixing of sugars, but because the co2 hasn't evened out- it hasn't been pulled fully into the beer. Think of it as there's a lot of co2 being generated and most of it is in the headspace, not in the beer, so there's still "over pressure" in the bottle, so it gushes when it is opened.

But when the beer is truly carbed it all evens out, across the bottles.

Click to expand...

I had just read a previous post of yours where you said all the same stuff except this paragraph haha. This makes perfect sense thanks, I'll just keep being patient which is much easier to do now that I've had some and am planning Brew Day 2!

RM-MN said:

Not necessarily. I would have recommended a little longer in the primary fermenter to make sure all the sugars were gone before you primed and bottled. I have seen this when racking onto the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. By dissolving the sugar into hot water, dumping it into the bottling bucket, and then racking the beer onto it in such a way as to make a swirling motion it should thoroughly mix the sugar in. It doesn't always work that way so for your next beer I suggest you use a long handle slotted spoon and slowly (so you don't mix air into the beer) stir the beer and sugar. Once I started doing that my bottles all seem to carb up evenly.

Click to expand...

I did sugar solution, beer, sugar solution, more beer and gave it a swirl, so I don't think there was a distribution problem. Will probably stir a little more next time just in case. Planning on leaving Brew2 in the primary longer, just got impatient with the first...couldn't help it. Thanks for the input, love this community!