2nd batch carb probs

so after two weeks of bottle conditioning my og 1.085 belgian specialty ale has no carb to it. its a 5 gall batchand i put in 4 oz of corn sugar well actually 3/4 cup but its all the same. should i wait longer or should i open all bottles and put in carb tabs?
please help

I have not done a big beer like this....yet....but, from what I've read you want to give this quite a bit of time to carb. It could take as much as 6 weeks to carb and probably needs to condition even longer than that.

If you added your sugar correctly and your caps have a good seal, it should carb eventually.

A big Belgian is not going to be a brew that hits the pint glass quickly. I'm guessing you probably need to throw it in the closet and forget about it for another 1.5 months.

What temperature were they stored in for the two weeks? Colder temperatures can stunt and prolong the carbonation process.

I typically put in 5oz of sugar for 5 gallon batches and have never had any problems. Did your recipe call for 4 or were you eyeballing it?

Did you stir the sugar up in the beer to evenly distribute it before bottling? Were all the caps sealed tightly?

There are a lot of different variables that contribute to a lack of carbonation. The general conclusion is more time and slightly warmer temperatures.

Two weeks for a 1.085 and you expect it to be carbed and conditioned already?!?!

Gravity and storage temp are the biggest factors in carbonation/conditioning times...

The bare minimum for most average grav beers is 3 weeks at 70 degrees. And that's for beers around 1.060....

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.

More info can be found here....Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. WIth emphasis on the word, patience.

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

Also, make sure you are adding your priming sugar by weight, not volume (although I believe you are correct - 3/4 cup would be about 4oz by weight) Four ounces by volume is only a half a cup.

But yeah, I would crack a bottle at 6 weeks on that one.

Revvy said:

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

Click to expand...

Oh Lazy Llama...is he still around? I haven't seen anything posted from him in a while. I miss his comments.

PatMac said:

Oh Lazy Llama...is he still around? I haven't seen anything posted from him in a while. I miss his comments.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen him either, miss him too but his memory will live on in his drawing.

ok so i ll wait longer on this i just like to see the progress at 2 weeks and expected more but i used a priming calculator and it said 4 oz was gonna be i think 2.2 on the carb scale

just my two cents, but a lot belgian ales seem to have a better mouth feel carbed higher than that too. beer smith calls for under 2.8 or 2.9 i think, but i've always had a better mouthfeel at around 3.5 volumes (like a delirium tremons). try it out some time and see what you think.