Carbonation is Low... What to do?

[HootHootHoot]

This might be a classic RDWHHB situation

I bottled a Helles Munich 2 weeks ago.
Fermentation was at 52 degrees
Lagered at 32 degrees for 6 weeks

This being my first lager, I was unsure what to use for temperature for priming sugar. The beer temperature was about 35 degrees after it warmed up a little waiting for me to sanitize. I used that. It said to use about 2.3 oz of table sugar.

I popped one open a week ago just to see how it tasted... almost no carbonation

I popped one open today thinking most of my ales are good to go at 2 weeks roughly. More hiss, more carbonation, but very low. No head on the beer.

Should I have used the 52 degrees? That would put me at an extra oz of sugar... that would make a huge difference.


Any way to save this batch?

 

[BigFloyd]

Did you do a d-rest? I typically run mine up from 48-50*F to 60-61*F for a few days prior to cold crashing then bottling/kegging.

If 52*F was the warmest temp the beer saw during ferment, use that in the priming calc. For mine, I use the d-rest temp. Right now, you may just have to give it a few more weeks and see what you end up with.

 

[zachattack]

You want to use the warmest temp that the beer saw at the very end of or after fermentation. In this case, 52.

If you fermented at 52 then let it D-rest at 70, you'd put in 70.

If you fermented at a constant 70 then cold-crashed it at 33, you'd put in 70.

If you started your fermentation at 66, ramped to 72 until it finished, then after fermentation aged it in your 60 degree basement, you'd put in 72.

The colder the beer, the more CO2 will dissolve under ambient pressure. But if there's no more CO2 being created (after fermentation is over) it won't have any additional CO2 to absorb. This is why you want to use the warmest temperature that the beer saw after active fermentation. The CO2 will leave as it warms up, but it won't come back as it gets cooler.

Not sure how to save the current batch. Maybe get them all really cold, then add a carb drop, then let them warm up again? I don't know how much sugar is in each carb drop, or if adding sugar would cause all the CO2 to nucleate and bubble out.

 

[HootHootHoot]

Yeah, I did a D-Rest for 2 days at room temp (about 68-70)

Sounds like this batch might just be low carbed. Damn. Third time brewing it, 3rd time made a mistake!!! Hopefully it will carb up a little more. It's drinkable, but it's definitely lower than it should be at this point. I'll give it a couple more weeks and see I guess