Cabonation Questions

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kathomas

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So I cracked open my first bottle of homebrew the other day and noticed it was a bit undercarbonated. It had been in bottles for about 1.5 weeks, so i think it was done carbonating, I just added a little less priming sugar (3.7oz instead of 5) since I was paranoid about bottle bombs. I can't imagine there would be, but you guys don't know of any tricks to increase the carbonation of the beer? It's not flat, its just obviously less than what most people are accustomed to in beer.
Besides that it tasted great though :)
 
1.5 weeks is too early. Wait until three weeks and then you will have carbonated beer. If you had five gallons of beer was at 70F you would have 2.2 volumes of CO2 which is plenty. Give it time!
 
You should have decent carbonation at the 10 day mark, but with your limited carb shot, waiting a little longer won't hurt. If your FG was where it needed to be you might end up a little under carbed regardless of how long you wait.

As far as carbing with limited sugar...just make sure you've got your FG before bottling and add the proper amount.
 
You should have decent carbonation at the 10 day mark, ....

If you believe that, then you must have never experienced a fully carbed beer.....

Katomas, it's too soon, no matter what the above believes. Read the thousands of threads on here and you'll see.

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." ;)

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more 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.

I've carbed hundreds of gallons of beer, and never had a beer that wasn't carbed, or under carbed or anything of the sort (Except for a batch where I accidently mixed up lactose or Maltodextrine for priming sugar). Some took awhile, (as I said up to six months) but they ALL eventually carbed.
 
+1 to waiting 3 weeks. Also, my recollection is that 3.7 or 3.8 ozs of sugar for a 5 gallon batch is perfect for most beer styles that I brew.
 
Revvy said:
If you believe that, then you must have never experienced a fully carbed beer.....

Katomas, it's too soon, no matter what the above believes. Read the thousands of threads on here and you'll see.

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.

I agree on the green beer at the 10 day mark. But never have I had a beer not carbed by then. I also make sure to carb at the same temp I fermented at to avoid any yeast disturbance due to temp variation.
 
If a batch has been in the fridge for weeks/months, can you still take it out, turn upside down to resuspend yeast and leave at room temperature for a week or two to increase ecarbonation?

I also posted this in another thread but wasn't sure which (if either) was still active.
 
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