Winter Carbonation

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JNJC

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Hi Folks,


Last night I opened a beer that I bottled about three weeks ago. It was as flat as a lizard drinking (and very sweet)... I reckon what has happen is that it's getting cold this side of the planet, I have an immersion heater in my fermenter but there is no heater in the shed. So I a guessing it was too cold for the yeast to do it's thing and carbonate the beer.

Am I correct in thinking that it will carbonate if I move it to somewhere warm ?

I don't really have anywhere in the house to store the beer on a regular basis, so I am trying to figure out a way of keeping it warm in the shed. What do you guys do in this situation ?

I was thinking I could pick up a cheap electric blanket and hang it on the inside of an old wardrobe and store the beer in there for a couple of weeks to carbonate, but that's about as much inspiration as I could come up with...

TIA,
JC
 
You want to get the beer up to 22C (70F) or so for bottle conditioning. That seems to be the general consensus here, so far as I can tell.
 
JNJC said:
Hi Folks,


Last night I opened a beer that I bottled about three weeks ago. It was as flat as a lizard drinking (and very sweet)... I reckon what has happen is that it's getting cold this side of the planet, I have an immersion heater in my fermenter but there is no heater in the shed. So I a guessing it was too cold for the yeast to do it's thing and carbonate the beer.

Am I correct in thinking that it will carbonate if I move it to somewhere warm ?

I don't really have anywhere in the house to store the beer on a regular basis, so I am trying to figure out a way of keeping it warm in the shed. What do you guys do in this situation ?

I was thinking I could pick up a cheap electric blanket and hang it on the inside of an old wardrobe and store the beer in there for a couple of weeks to carbonate, but that's about as much inspiration as I could come up with...

TIA,
JC
Click to expand...

That should work. I don't know how energy efficient it would be without some insulation. You only need to be in the low 60's, although warmer will work faster.

GT
 
Carbonation in bottles requires a place that has enough room to store the beer that is constantly between 65F to 72F. You need 2 weeks at 70F to carbonate. This is why a lot of us make insulated fermentation chambers with a digital controller. It's not that hard to construct one from sheets of foam available from Home Depot. The insulation really helps to contain any heat generated by fermentation and so cooling is all that is needed which can be ice or better yet a temperature controlled refrigerator works well too. If you really want control over temperature then this really has to be done.
 
. The insulation really helps to contain any heat generated by fermentation and so cooling is all that is needed
Click to expand...

Are you saying here that if I have an insulated chamber that I won't need to supply an external heat source, the fermentation process will generate enough heat to keep things at the right temperature ?
 
JNJC said:
Are you saying here that if I have an insulated chamber that I won't need to supply an external heat source, the fermentation process will generate enough heat to keep things at the right temperature ?
Click to expand...

When primary fermentation is going on it makes heat (exothermic). This subsides after 3 days. I am sure there is some from the bottles too although it is a lot smaller energy release. Unless your refrigerator is out in the wind on the back porch and its 40 outside it should help keep the bottles at a reasonable temperature. If not you could use any kind of heat source as long as you can control it thermostaticaly. You can also put bottles in a cooler chest in a bath of 70F water and add heated water or ice as necessary to maintain 70F if you have nowhere else suitable to put them.
Just check it every so often and it is easy.
 
WBC said:
Unless your refrigerator is out in the wind on the back porch and its 40 outside it should help keep the bottles at a reasonable temperature. .
Click to expand...

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you suggesting I use the refrigerator as a heat source ? Should I stack them behind it or something like that ?
 
JNJC said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you suggesting I use the refrigerator as a heat source ? Should I stack them behind it or something like that ?
Click to expand...

What Im trying to say is control the temperature and giving you ideas on how you might do it. Be inventive.
 
Depending on how cold it really gets, it should be pretty easy to heat up an insulated chamber. A lightbulb or two can add a significant amount of heat.

If you want to precisely control the temperature, then you will need some kind of controller which can cycle on and off based on the temperature.

For example, inside of an insulated chamber you could have a light bulb which is plugged into you temperature controller. The controller is set to cycle on when the temperature hits 65, and it is set to turn off when it hits 72.

You just have to be sure that you heat source can generate enough heat to raise the ambient temperature of the chamber to the degree required.
 

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