RDWHAHB - or should I take action..imperial stout carbonation

After a week in the bottle, my awesome russian imperial stout is virtually free of carbonation. OG = 1095, FG = 1.016. Primary for two weeks, secondary for 4 months, and I dosed it with fresh nottingham yeast at bottling time and 4.4 ounces dextrose for the five gallon batch at bottling.

This is quite odd, because usually the fresh notty, takes that sugar and just goes to town, I have a very slight his and super faint carbonation after a week at 65 degrees. I shook the bottles up good and raised the temp in my fermentation room up to 70 degrees.....I am hoping that this takes care of it.

I am hoping to have this beer ready for thanksgiving for my father in law, who is a stout afficianado.

Should I be concerned or just stash this bad boy away for the next 3 months and call it good?

Try it again after 3 weeks in the bottle. It'll take a lot longer for such a higher OG beer to carb.

I've had some bottles that don't produce head. It is still good tasting and none have turned bad.

Who is your drinking audience? My friends seem to be ok without the foam on top.

My $.02

Bill

Give it more than three weeks. I just did a saison that finished at 8% and it took at least two weeks for the carbonation to show up. My RIS that I did in Feb at ~14% took a long time to carb up. Patience those yeast are tired and stressed out from fermenting all that sugar.

1 week is not enough time to be concerned. Give your bottles 3 weeks minimum always before tasting. Some beers will take even longer.

RDWHAHB...everyday for another two weeks

The og was 1.095, we're talking months here, not weeks!!! Words like Imperial, should be a clue...

There's nothing wrong...it's a big beer you have there, it will take time. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that 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."

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....



Yours in in the "long time" category, so go brew something else that will be ready in a few weeks. RIS set aside for month is not longer....

So forget about this beer for awhile. It will be fine.

I've had a 9.5% dark Belgian in the bottle for a month. Re-yeasted at bottling. No sign of carbonation yet but I'm not at all concerned. I'm in no hurry for this beer and if it takes 90 days I'm okay with it.

I love that chart!

Really professional!

Oddly enough, I bottled a barley wine, %10 ABV, it was carbed perfectly in less then a week. I dosed this imperial stout with the same amount from the same slurry of yeast so I was expecting similar carbing results. I guess something must be different.

Regardless, the graph is great and I do know WAY better then to expect huge beers to finish early. So, I will put this under my stairwell, along with the belgian dark strong, barley wine and imperial pale ale!........my family knows not of my evil plans for thanksgiving....no wine served at my place!

Also, I did post the recipe, and even without bubbles this stout is crazy good. It has minimal chocolate malt and know black malt. The majority of the color is from roasted barley, special B and C120....it is so chocolatey, raisiny and delicious. 100 IBU too

Am I the only one tired of reading post about why is my beer not carbed after 1 week?

Maybe its cause I read this forum 8 hours day at work.

509inc said:

Am I the only one tired of reading post about why is my beer not carbed after 1 week?

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No, it's not you, we all are.

Yeah, I should never have posted it. I already knew the answer......my apologies.

permo said:

Yeah, I should never have posted it. I already knew the answer......my apologies.

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Go get a wet noodle and take care of yourself.

wildwest450 said:

Go get a wet noodle and take care of yourself.

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Too be fully honest, I wasnt all there when I posted this question IIPA packs a punch...it happens:cross:

So in my infinite brilliance, I decided to try one of my freshly bottle impy stouts, and was alarmed! no biggie

509inc said:

Am I the only one tired of reading post about why is my beer not carbed after 1 week?

Maybe its cause I read this forum 8 hours day at work.

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Yup and yup....that's why the ole cut and paste happens.....*shrug*

Goosta said:

RDWHAHB...everyday for another two weeks

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Greatest. Advice. EVER.

I've got a RIS that i brewed back in January of '09. While i didnt check it for carbonation early on, I used oxygen barrier caps (whether they actually do anything is a different story) just to be on the safe side. I did notice substantial flavor improvement from the 9 month mark to now. It's just one of those beers that you need to forget about and crack one every once in a while. RDWHAHB