How long does it generally take for a beer to carbonate in the bottle?

I'm not sure if the plastic bottle test is that good? I re-yeasts and put sugar in all the bottles for a 10 gal batch that never carbonated and used a small plastic water bottle as a tester. It seemed to expand, was firm after a week but still had no carb? I'm now on my 2nd week after re-carbing and a bottle had a hint of carbonation...it's still extremely sour tho??

Hard plastic bottle isn't a guarantee that the beer is adequately carbed.

Joesl8 said:

I'm not sure if the plastic bottle test is that good? I re-yeasts and put sugar in all the bottles for a 10 gal batch that never carbonated and used a small plastic water bottle as a tester. It seemed to expand, was firm after a week but still had no carb? I'm now on my 2nd week after re-carbing and a bottle had a hint of carbonation...it's still extremely sour tho??

Click to expand...

After a week most beers will not be fully carbonated.
Sour flavor could be a indication of an infection.

The plastic bottle is only an indicator. It doesn't take much CO2 to expand the bottle but when fully carbed the bottle is rock hard. If the bottle remains soft you don't have to open any bottles to know the beer is flat. If you put the plastic bottle in the fridge and it gets really soft...it is too soon. It's just a guide and is better than opening and wasting flat beers.

A few of the beers are almost fully carbonated so I guess the experiment was a success. According to a friend at work, got me into home brewing, it is a great example of a sour beer? Not my up of tea but he wants all of them because his girlfriend loved it... The yeast was infected because my wife's little brother pulled the blow off tube out and didn't tell us, I found out about it two days later.