Bottle Carbing Question

OK well I brewed a beautiful American Amber Ale that tasted great at hydro test and bottling time. Well I just got looking at my Beersmith and I had my carb level at 2.7 but didn't realize that the temp setting was at 50, so it told me 4.5 oz of priming sugar. I bottled at about 68-70 degrees and when I saw that it was at 50 in the program I switched it to 70 and it says I should have used about 5.5 oz. CRAP! Its been conditioning for a little over 3 weeks and I opened one and sure enogh not much of a head and low carb level.

So my question is am I just going to have a low carbonated beer and a crappy head. I doubt there is anything that can be done now that they are sealed in bottles to up the carbonation... or is there? Will letting it condition longer help it?


Thanks for an help,

Crap I meant to make this its own thread, Sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread. Can a Mod move this to its own thread?
Sorry again

You could try cellaring them at 50-60F for 3 or 4 weeks. That could help some additional CO2 dissolve into the beer. I wouldn't advise trying to uncap and recap the bottles.... Perhaps, if after a few more weeks of conditioning, the head is still a bit crappy, it may just mean you have to give it a vigorous pour to get a bigger foam. I would think that, even at 2.4 or 2.5 vols, that it would still be a tasty Amber Ale.

I have no where to cellar them that cold. My basement is 68 degrees years round. so I will just let thm condition a few more weeks. Thanks Chriso

Looks like you'll have about a 20% less carbonated beer than you intended. That's not much in the scope of things. Just keep them in the fridge for about a week prior to drinking to absorb as much CO2 as possible and they'll be fine. Their carbonation should be at around the upper range of a Bitter. They might actually be quite good that way.

Menschmachine's got it - if you can't cellar, you can always pseudo-"lager" them by storing them in the fridge for at least a week before popping one open. The idea is to get any and all CO2 still in the headspace, forced into solution in the beer. Cold temps help accomplish this.

I'm sure they'll be fine in another couple of weeks! RDW!

Thanks again guys

OK revisiting this. So I chilled a 12 pack in the fridge for about a week and last night I popped on open... the whole damn thing was head?? I poured it nice and gentle and it was all head and very highly carbed like seltzer beer. It changes the flavor of the beer itself because it is so carbed

So I had a couple of thoughts tell me if I'm off base here. I took a full 12 and chilled it, but obviously it wasn't the same 12 that had the low carbed beer in it from the beginning. I was wondering if maybe the priming sugar did not mix correctly and maybe I have more sugar in the beginning couple 12's and not enough in the last couple 12's?
I assume that can be possible although I dont know why because here is my process in which I never had a problem before:
- dissolve x amount of sugar in boiling water
- cool it a bit
- pour in to bottling bucket while I am syphoning in the beer at the same time
- it all swirls and I assumed they mixed (it always did before)
Any thing alse I should be doing?

So of course I'm going to chill the stuff I think is low and see how that is and go from there. Any other suggestions or ideas?


Thanks

A gentle stirring. Not enough to mix in air, but enough to know it's mixed.

Temperature of the ferment?

Fermented at 68 degrees.

So do you think maybe my priming sughar didn't mix thoroughly?