So I have a batch of brown porter that I put into secondary and decided to drop the temp down to 45 degrees during the second week in secondary. I bottled it (2.2 gallons) with a 1/4 cup of corn sugar, and it has been stored at 70 degrees for the past week. By my calculations this should have been enough to bottle condition to 2.0 or better carbonation by volume. It's been one week and popped one open to check it out. There is zero carbonation. I will wait another week, but if there is no carbonation then I guess I will have to pop open all my bottles and transfer to a keg to force carbonate. Did I cause all my yeast to fall out of suspension by dropping the temperature while it was in secondary? Any suggestions on what to do if this beer never reaches acceptable carbonation levels in the bottles? I know it has sugar in it, so I would think its a yeast issue.
Did my yeast get too cold and head south for the winter?
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Johnnyhitch1
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i let all my bottles carb for ATLEAST 2-3 weeks before popping one open. just fight the urge and wait it out.
the more you pop the less youll have that are actually carbed in the long run
45* is not cold enough to completely cold crash IMO
why did you drop to 45* for a week? avoid this all together next time and cold crash to 35* for 24-48 hours
DO NOT transfer all the bottles to keg youll risk serious oxidation/infection
and as always...RDWHAHB
the more you pop the less youll have that are actually carbed in the long run
45* is not cold enough to completely cold crash IMO
why did you drop to 45* for a week? avoid this all together next time and cold crash to 35* for 24-48 hours
DO NOT transfer all the bottles to keg youll risk serious oxidation/infection
and as always...RDWHAHB
Thanks for the words. Yeah, I jumped the gun opening one early. My last batch over carbonated in only a week so I got a little curious about where this one was in one week.
I had never tried cold crashing before, so thought I would try it. I couldn't get back to the beer for a week so that's why I let it go at that temp for so long. I am still curious how some ales are cellar aged for long periods of time and then cask conditioned. If the yeast has crashed then is more yeast added to kick the conditioning off? That was one recommendation that was given to me if these bottles don't condition after three weeks....add a tiny bit of yeast to each bottle.
For now I will wait it out and see what happens. In the mean time I have some porter I left on some port soaked oak chips for the past month that I force carbonated. Good thoughts.
Thanks for the reply.
I had never tried cold crashing before, so thought I would try it. I couldn't get back to the beer for a week so that's why I let it go at that temp for so long. I am still curious how some ales are cellar aged for long periods of time and then cask conditioned. If the yeast has crashed then is more yeast added to kick the conditioning off? That was one recommendation that was given to me if these bottles don't condition after three weeks....add a tiny bit of yeast to each bottle.
For now I will wait it out and see what happens. In the mean time I have some porter I left on some port soaked oak chips for the past month that I force carbonated. Good thoughts.
Thanks for the reply.
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