Beer under carbonated?

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club2682

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I am just about ready with my first batch (I think). My amber ale has been in bottles for 13 days after 2 weeks of fermentation. I just took one bottle as a sample last night. I let it cool in the fridge and gave it a taste.....it was good but the one thing I noticed was that it seemed under carbonated as compared to what I buy commercially. There was head, but it was very small.
I am wondering if I should let them condition for more time or maybe I didn't use enough priming sugar (used the pack that came with the kit I bought).
Are home brews just a little less carbonated then the store bought stuff?
 
club2682 said:
Are home brews just a little less carbonated then the store bought stuff?
Click to expand...

Homebrewed beer can be as carbonated or as uncarbonated as you want. 3 weeks at 70 degrees is a pretty standard time period to wait for carbonation to set in properly. Sometimes it's longer. It's certainly possible that, in addition, you used too little priming sugar, but I'd need to see some numbers to be able to speculate about that.
 
Ok thanks, I guess it is not going to hurt to wait another week before refrigeration.
I believe it was a 5 oz bag of priming sugar that came with my kit for 5 gallons.
 
The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)
 
Thanks.....patience is a virtue! Its just really hard with it being my first batch, ha. Thanks for the help guys!
 
Judge said:
Is there a document such as this specific to kegging?
Click to expand...

No, but there are a bunch of threads where keggers say they too age their beers for about the same amount of time before actually drinking it. I think Yooper says she does. A lot of times it happens automatically through having a pipeline. You may take three weeks to kick a keg, so that beer sitting in a keg next to your keggerator has been mellowing while you wait for a spot on your taps for it. All kegging does is speed up carbonation, it doesn't necessarily change the need for conditioning. In fact I think many a new brewer/kegger, is actually drinking green beer and not realizing it, until indeed they do have a backup in their pipeline, and have the opportunity to age their beer a bit.
 
I would also advise chilling it down longer. Just a few hours, or even a full day really isn't long enough. I tend to let mine chill for 4-5 days minimum. Longer if I can. That gets the trub to compact on the bottom of the bottle, and ensures that the CO2 is trapped within the beer and doesn't escape as soon as you open the brew (or is all head)...

Try putting a few into the fridge, trying one at 4 days, then 5, then 6... If possible, put a half dozen bottles into the fridge and see where carbonation gets to your liking. It might not hit commercial levels, but you should hit a point where it doesn't increase anymore.
 
Revvy said:
No, but there are a bunch of threads where keggers say they too age their beers for about the same amount of time before actually drinking it. I think Yooper says she does. A lot of times it happens automatically through having a pipeline. You may take three weeks to kick a keg, so that beer sitting in a keg next to your keggerator has been mellowing while you wait for a spot on your taps for it. All kegging does is speed up carbonation, it doesn't necessarily change the need for conditioning. In fact I think many a new brewer/kegger, is actually drinking green beer and not realizing it, until indeed they do have a backup in their pipeline, and have the opportunity to age their beer a bit.
Click to expand...

So two weeks is about the minimum? Three is better?

When I first started kegging I foolishly thought that kegging would allow me to eliminate the wait-time between end-of-fermentation and drinking. I thought I could rack to the keg, shake vigorously to instantly carb, and drink it immediately. With experience I have learned that is not really true. You can carb and drink, but it ain't too good...even kegged beer still needs to age a while before consumption. Even knowing this, I am frequently still too impatient and tend to "sample" the contents too early.

Sadly I don't have a substantial pipeline so tend to revert to old, bad habits.
 

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