1st brew! Tastes great, but not super carbed..

So first of all - woot! It is quite tasty!

It is an all extract hefeweisen (bavarian extract). It is a bit darker than I expected (bonus!), guessing that is partly because I didn't realize I was supposed to correct for boil-off so instead of 5 gallons I actually had about 4 gallons actual volume (for a 5 gallon recipe). I let it go 3 weeks in the carboy and then 3 weeks in the bottles. I would tell you OG and FG numbers if I knew them, but I did this first one kinda flying blind.. I attached a picture with two images, on the left is what it was like before it went into the bottles and on the right is after 3 weeks of carbonation. Room temp where all this happened varied from 66-73F from day to day and even within a single day.

Now, my questions are about the degree of carbonation. It definitely did carbonate, but not quite as much as I'd like. From reading elsewhere on these forums I didn't even bother opening one until after the 3 weeks mark and that is what is shown in the pic. So,

1) are the bottles still carbing?

2) For the next batch, if I want it to be 25% more carbonated, do I just add 25% more sugar when I bottle? I'm hoping for something simple like that, but please let me know if this is a baaaaaad idea. I'd rather not have a closet full of exploding beer bottles.

Thanks!

Regarding the volume issue, you could have added water at the end of the boil to correct for being short. Not a big problem, but for future reference...

Not knowing how much sugar or what type of sugar you used let me suggest one ounce of cane sugar per gallon will give you plus or minus depending on your fermentation temps about 2.7 atmospheres of carb.

Glad you made beer though

How long did you chill the bottle before pouring it to glass? Typically you'll have better carbonation if it's in the fridge for at least a few days (4-7 being better)... I would try one bottle per week to see how it progresses for carbonation. Once it's where you want it, put more into the fridge and enjoy...

As for figuring out how to carbonate (in bottles), use this site...

Also, flying blind is not a good idea. You should at least know the OG, and FG of the batch. You also need to be sure it's at FG before you bottle it. Knowing the strength of the batch, as well as the yeast (and it's tolerance) will also help in carbonation. Basically, if the yeast is listed for up to 8% and your OG/FG indicate 7.9% or 8%, you'll want to add yeast for carbonation.

Bottle carbonated batches can also increase in carbonation over time. I'm not talking about in the 3-8 weeks time frame, but in the several months time frame. I have a couple of earlier batches (from early last year) that are now boarder-line over-carbonated in bottles. Luckily, I used bottles that can easily handle the increased levels (Belgian bottles, with corks and cages :rockin.

OK, I'll wait and see as a few chill longer. The longest chilled one was in for about a day before opening. And yeah, I have the tool for gravity measurements now, but didn't then.

Thanks for the link, from the numbers it gives it looks to be linear so that is helpful.

Update with some numbers: we added 3/4 cup of what the LHBS claims is corn sugar. We weighed a similar packet and it was about 3.5 oz.

Working the website formula backwards from the amount of sugar we actually added says we should have got 2.1 vol CO2 - does that sound consistent with the level of carbonation I got?

Using the website and following the low-end of the Weizen guide (3.6 vol CO2) says we should have added 7.4 oz corn sugar, more than double what we had actually added. Does that sound about right for a hefeweizen, or am I using the site wrong?