How long does carbonation take?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Boston85

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2010
Messages
86
Reaction score
0
Location
Boston
I transferred from primary to secondary after a week...then left in secondary for 2 weeks.... this past friday I decided it was time to bottle. By accident I filled my bottling bucket with the beer before adding the sugar (it seems I should have added sugar to the bucket first). I thankfully realized this before bottling, so I boiled my sugar in water and then added to the bottling bucket, mixed it around, and then bottled. Today I wanted to try one of the bottles, so I opened it, but it was still really flat. The taste was great, but just no carbonation. I am a little worried that I did not add enough sugar or something happened with the carbonation in the bottles. My question is how long does it normally take? I know I am supposed to leave the bottles for a few weeks and then cold condition, but I wanted to take a taste tonight and see. Do you think anything negative happened, or is it just taking a little bit to fully carbonate?
 
You need to leave your beer in the bottle for 3 weeks at 70 deg. Then put in the fridge for 1 week. I'm out right now and the wait is killing me but come Thursday, I'm gonna have 2 batches ready!!! Do a search on bottle conditioning and find Revy's blog on it, he explains it thoroughly.
 
I transferred from primary to secondary after a week...then left in secondary for 2 weeks.... this past friday I decided it was time to bottle. By accident I filled my bottling bucket with the beer before adding the sugar (it seems I should have added sugar to the bucket first). I thankfully realized this before bottling, so I boiled my sugar in water and then added to the bottling bucket, mixed it around, and then bottled. Today I wanted to try one of the bottles, so I opened it, but it was still really flat. The taste was great, but just no carbonation. I am a little worried that I did not add enough sugar or something happened with the carbonation in the bottles. My question is how long does it normally take? I know I am supposed to leave the bottles for a few weeks and then cold condition, but I wanted to take a taste tonight and see. Do you think anything negative happened, or is it just taking a little bit to fully carbonate?

The concept behind adding the priming sugar solution to the bucket first is to reduce the chances of oxidation that could be caused from mixing. Essentially, the mixing is occuring as you siphon the beer into the bucket that has the solution. But as long as you didn't go psycho on mixing, you should be fine. Further, I think Revvy's thread is fantastic and this is the link: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

EDIT: OOPS, that was the wrong blog thread, but it is still a great one.
 
The answer is carbonation takes as long as it takes. The yeast get around to doing their thing in their own sweet time. All we can do is make them comfortable and give them plenty of good stuff to eat. In short, just wait longer.
 
I would say try another in a day or 2. If your real worried you should here atleast a hiss when you open it. I have been randomly trying mine I am on day 5 and now I am really starting to tell. I would let it go longer but its my first brew and its so good. coopers canadian blond.
 
If you don't mind having sediment in the bottom of your bottles, suck up some of the yeast cake while racking to the bottling bucket. I've found that this causes carbonation to be done in about 3-4 days at 70F. Sure the beer improves as it ages further but carbonation happens damn quick if you put a lot of yeast in there to begin with.
 
I don't know why there's so many posts in this thread saying to wait a few days, or wait a week and start randomly trying them...

I was under the impression that it takes bare minimum 3 weeks for any brew (apart from some 10 day recipies) to condition in the bottles, with 4 being ideal and anything longer not hurting one bit.
 
Back
Top