Carbonation
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grasshopperfirestarter
Well-Known Member
You can have carbonation in bottle after 2 weeks. But how old is that beer from brew day when you bottled? It may need some conditioning.
I try a bottle on most of my beers after 2 weeks. Some were carbonated, some not. ALL of them tasted better at 3 weeks or longer.
Add: I have done a couple of higher ABV/gravity brews that took months to 3/4 year to condition fully.
Add: I have done a couple of higher ABV/gravity brews that took months to 3/4 year to condition fully.
corpsman619
Well-Known Member
Two weeks is the standard for beer to reach proper carbonation in bottles, in general the longer the better as most brews tend to improve with age. **Keep in mind if you are letting it sit for VEERY long periods you will want 02 absorbing caps.
Chill one or two for 2 days and try. Let the rest sit at 70* until you really need them cold.
corpsman619
Well-Known Member
Sorry to crash this thread but this question is very much related.
I live in SoCal and right now we are sitting at about 80 during the day. I do not have a cool basement all that I have is a laundry room windows letting in the blaring sun! So is it too hot to condition and ferment beer at around 80 degree F? How hot is too hot? Should I keep the bottles/carboys in water?
Thanks
I live in SoCal and right now we are sitting at about 80 during the day. I do not have a cool basement all that I have is a laundry room windows letting in the blaring sun! So is it too hot to condition and ferment beer at around 80 degree F? How hot is too hot? Should I keep the bottles/carboys in water?
Thanks
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In my humble opinion... NO is the shortest answer.
You will get all sorts of opinions on this...... and many will say that the base line is 2 weeks for carbonation in bottles. I've personally found that this 2-week period is mostly pushed by kit manufacturers who don't want newbies turned off to the fact that it can take a LOT longer to properly carb.
The MINIMUM time to be WELL carbonated and the flavor profile consistent across all bottles, in a batch, has been 4 weeks for me (and sometimes up to many months, depending on what you're brewing -- had a Belgian Quad take almost a year, but was phenomenal when finally ready).
Early on... I had to learn that patience is the number one ingredient in home brewing. Even when extract brewing a 5 gallon batch, I learned to keep it in primary for 4-6 weeks, and then keep it in bottles for 4-6 weeks before moving a couple to cold. That's the formula I found maintained consistently good flavor profiles with full and even carbonation.
Anyway... like I said...... patience is the first ingredient in home brewing. Get that 2-week stuff outa your mind and I think you'll be much, much happier as you progress in this hobby.
Cheers!
dgr
Well-Known Member
Two weeks is the perfect amount of time as long as you add it to at least one week for a normal gravity beer. Perfect. But it'll likely taste pretty darn good at two weeks. Just don't come back and post a my beer is under/overcarbonated thread if you so choose to open one at two weeks.
corpsman,
Go read about Saisons and/or swamp coolers. You are going to end up with some flavors in your beers you may or may not appreciate. This really relates to fermenting and not conditioning like the original post. Conditioning at warmer temperatures isn't much of an issue compared to fermenting.
corpsman,
Go read about Saisons and/or swamp coolers. You are going to end up with some flavors in your beers you may or may not appreciate. This really relates to fermenting and not conditioning like the original post. Conditioning at warmer temperatures isn't much of an issue compared to fermenting.
Okay so I moved a bottle of each batch (I made two small batches of the same style with slight differences) and moved them to the fridge one day shy of two weeks carbonating as a test.
My plan is to give the rest of the batch another week and then test again.
Right track?
My plan is to give the rest of the batch another week and then test again.
Right track?
I'm impatient, so that's what I tend to do, heh. I never had any issues with carbonation with the first beers I put in the fridge, but they are always the worst of the batch. The extra time to condition really makes a difference.
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^ This! That's what I've been tryin' to say this whole thread. Two weeks conditioning = Drinkable? Maybe - depends on several variables. Good? Possibly. Better if you have more patience? Definitely yes! :rockin:
Okay so I tested a bottle of each batch at exactly the two week mark....
The carbonation was excellent and it retained it's head pretty well too. VERY happy.
HOWEVER... I definitely noticed that the flavors were not super developed. It was weird as the flavors were present, just not prominent. My assumption is that it needs time to condition as many of you pointed out. So I'm letting it rest another week and then I'll test two more bottles. Thank you for the responses as they were VERY helpful
Cheers!
The carbonation was excellent and it retained it's head pretty well too. VERY happy.
HOWEVER... I definitely noticed that the flavors were not super developed. It was weird as the flavors were present, just not prominent. My assumption is that it needs time to condition as many of you pointed out. So I'm letting it rest another week and then I'll test two more bottles. Thank you for the responses as they were VERY helpful
Cheers!
NewWestBrewer
Well-Known Member
Congrats on your carbonated beer but I would wait another two weeks. Depending on what you brewed a lot of beer hits it's prime around 4 weeks after bottling.
Yes, 80º F is too warm. Though I am new, I posted something nearly identical (check my posts) and found out that fermenting at 78º (a hefe) is too warm. The fermentation seems to be pretty much done after one week. I can end up with a "banana bomb" which is banana tasting beer. I tried today, day 9 in the fermentation bucket, and taste no banana but we'll see after bottling. There are some beers that ask for higher heat when fermenting (Saison) but generally speaking, 80º F is too warm for many beers.
OP, I am truly sorry for the off topic response. Figured I'd relay the information I've been given here to another brewer.
On topic, did you try your beer before it was bottled? Was the taste the same?
