Bottled beer seems too carbonated

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SmittyisLEGEND

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This is my first batch of homebrew and I tasted it right after the secondary fermentation to make sure it tasted as good as it smelt and it seemed quite good! Now I have it bottled and I have 10 days in bottling (so about 4 days left) and I cracked one open for curiousity and it had a lot of carbonation and a lot of head on it but didn't seem to taste quite right. Will this get better with te last bit of time left in it or did I mess it up somehow?
 
Too early.

and I would guess that you didn't chill it long enough.

Let it sit 2 more weeks. 10 days warm and 4 in the fridge.
 
Okay thank you! thought I added too much corn sugar but it was a pre-made kit. Sounds like I still have hope!
 
Absolutely. For some reason homebrew has to chill for at least 24 hours (preferably longer) to get the Co2 to settle in.
 
Okay I'll have to look into that, I'm doing an Irish red ale right now and I have my room set for about 65ish and I have a couple blankets covering all the brew, fermenting strips says it's about 68 degrees
 
Okay I'll have to look into that, I'm doing an Irish red ale right now and I have my room set for about 65ish and I have a couple blankets covering all the brew, fermenting strips says it's about 68 degrees

My suggestion is pull the blankets. Most ale yeasts will do well at 65*, and you risk running ferm temp too high under blankets.
 
They're NOT over carbonated. You've opened them TOO SOON. The co2 is NOT in solution yet.



We get this all the time from impatient folks who open their bottles WAAAAAYYYYYYY early. If you opened them at three weeks, or more, you never would have noticed.

If you watch Poindexter's video on time lapsed carbonation, you will see that in many instances, before a beer is carbed it may gush, that's not from infection, or mixing of sugars, but because the co2 hasn't evened out- it hasn't been pulled fully into the beer. Think of it as there's a lot of co2 being generated and most of it is in the headspace, not in the beer, so there's still "over pressure" in the bottle, so it gushes when it is opened.

But when the beer is truly carbed it all evens out, across the bottles.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw]time lapse carbonation - YouTube[/ame]

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.

And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out. You have green beer.

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." ;)

Additionally once the three weeks or so has passed, chiling them down for a few days (not just a few hours or over night as most new brewers want to do ;)) will help the carbonation settle.

So the correct answer is, WALK AWAY for 2 more weeks.
 
Alright thanks for the info! I just got impatient but if good beer will happen in a couple more weeks then I'll just have to force myself to leave it alone and do it's thing!
 
I have the bottles sitting in my room under the blanket so if I take it off then light will hit them. Do you think it's worth taking the blankets off?
 
I could movie it intone closet but the temperature varies from a little below sixty to 65ish so not sure how the beer will react in that environment
 
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