Fully Carbed after one week in Bottle

8 days after bottling an ESB, I opened a tester and was surprised to find it fully (and perhaps even overly carbonated). I then chilled and opened two more to find them both fully carbonated as well. I boiled 2/3 cup of table sugar in a one pint of water for several minutes, and added to the bottling bucket prior to transferring from my fermenter. I did something very similar with the last ESB I brewed a month or so ago, and it took about 3 weeks to carb.

Am I looking at two cases of potential bottle bombs as the beer may continue to carb for 2 more weeks, or is this more of a "once it is carbed, it is carbed" type of thing?

Right now I am gonna proceed with my "drink it fast" plan, but am curious what others think about the potential for explosion.

if there carbed put them in the fridge to drop the yeast into hibernation. Your good indeffinitly that way.
If you pour into a glass and you have bubbles coming through the liquid for more than the first few minutes, and it holds a head then ide say your done, otherwise let it keep going. Either way make sure to check them every few days to keep them in the safe range of carbonation and avoid bottle bombs. On another note, carbing them at higher temperatures makes things go alot quicker

yep you beeter get it cold fast and keep it there lol .

I've bottled 17 batches so far and every one has carbed up in a week. I know because I've sampled every batch at the one week mark. I leave them all at room temperature and just chill a few at a time as I drink them, usually over the following 3 weeks. I've never had a bottle bomb and I've never had a beer that seemed overcarbed. I'm always surprised to hear when some guys' beer takes so long to carbonate because my beers always carbonate quickly and reliably.

my last beer was fully carbed in a week, and at about 2/3 weeks some bottles would foam up after opening...never had a bomb though. i would go with the others and get it some where cold!

Beerbeque said:

I've bottled 17 batches so far and every one has carbed up in a week. I know because I've sampled every batch at the one week mark. I leave them all at room temperature and just chill a few at a time as I drink them, usually over the following 3 weeks. I've never had a bottle bomb and I've never had a beer that seemed overcarbed. I'm always surprised to hear when some guys' beer takes so long to carbonate because my beers always carbonate quickly and reliably.

Click to expand...

whats your secret ?? I hate waiting !

Nobody else has said this yet but.......

Your beer might not actually be carbed yet. There is a transitionary period, while pressure is still equalizing, where the beer appears/feels carb'ed, and where you might even experience gushers, but full equilibrium has not yet occured!

Unless you suspect you added too much sugar (which I don't think you did, but weighing sugar is always more accurate than trying to measure by volume), I would leave the bottles OUT of the fridge, and just be patient.

Waiting is the BEST thing you can do for your beer, period.

And to answer the question towards the end of your post - To a certain extent, it is a "once it is carbed, it is carbed" type of scenario. That's why accurately weighing priming sugar, and making sure your beer is done attenuating/fermenting before proceeding with bottling, are the two most important steps you can take in accurate, reproducible bottling technique.

You are starting with a liquid with a known CO2 content, and you are adding a known amount of yeast food, which will net a known addition of CO2. The only way it can "keep going" is if another competing strain of yeast starts to eat the nonfermentable sugars - be it Brettanomyces, or another strain you might add (e.g. champagne yeast).

Chirso wins the door prize!!!!...what you have is what I call "false carbonation" or "impatient Newbie nya nya nay my beer is already carbed"..

It's what most impatient newbies THINK is carbonation because it is fizzy...But I'm gonna burst you bubble with the simply truth: It's not carbed because the co2 has not been reabsorbed back into the solution (the beer)....that's what true carbonation is.

Nor is the beer conditioned either...it is green...It will taste much better when it is really carbed and conditioned!!!

Sorry guys, unless you are kegging you can't force a natural process based on living yeast...We don't say 3 weeks @ 70 to make you n00bs wait, or to blow smoke up your a$$ that's the bare minimum based on years of experience for yeasts to carbonate a normal grav beers....higher grav beers take even longer..

Read this, and watch the video...The video even shows exactly what you all who think your beer is carbed after 1 week are experiencing.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html


Seriously guys...do you think somehow you who say your beer is carbed after one week have some magic beer juju that's different from everyone else on here? We;ve all cracked bottles open after a week and noticed them fizzy...but fizzy is not carbed...nor is it bottle condioned.

If you've got a lot of CO2 in there but it hasn't dissolve yet, which it seems like you do, then put the bottle in the freezer for an hour and then shake it up really hard. Put it back in the fridge for a couple of hours and shake it up again. let sit for another hour and it should be better.

Hey guys.

Thanks for the info (and the search feature). I just popped a top on the Kolsch I bottled on the 8th and was blown away at the amount of head and bubble action in the beer.


I'm going to call this one, not carb'd and keep waiting.

I bottled on new years eve and cracked one today. It definately had carbonization but it wasn't absorbed into the beer.

It's been in the fridge for 3 days now.

Here's a tip for checking for those of you who cringe at wasting any beer. Get a six pack of those 8 oz bottles of coke. Enjoy the coke. Bottle your beer and use 1 or 2 of those. Then when you pop a top to check you'll waste less. Remember to keep them ultra protected from light.

This last batch of mine actually hammered the point some of you were making about being fizzy not equaling being carbonated. Cheers

Hey Kass_Brauhaus - Just noticed your avatar. Glad to see you found the "Beer Shrine" up here in the PNW. Do you get up here much?

Also - start weighing out your priming sugar.

+1 to all the "wait" advice. I bottle condition and I even cask condition all my kegs. Two weeks minimum for the start of any significant CO2 absorption. Assume three weeks to carb. Also, if you think you have bottle bombs, best thing to do is leave them for another 2 weeks. You don't want to be handling or mucking with them if there's a chance they are going to explode. The most you should do is take the case and put it in a bin of some sort to catch the beer if they explode.