Carbonation

[jmarx13]

Why does it take 2 weeks for Carbonation? Most of the Fermentation happens in the first week. Why 2 weeks for alittle bit of carbonation to happen.

 

[PRE66_6TART]

If I had to guess, which I don't, but I will anyway, I'd say because most of the yeast has dropped out and there's no oxygen?

 

[dkevinb]

Most of the carbonation is going to happen during the first week. If you bottle in PET bottles (which I do) you can test them by squeezing them. When they're hard they're carbed, which mine are after about a week. However, an extra week or two of bottle conditioning does improve the flavor quite noticeably.

 

[arbiadya]

Don't mix fermentation and carbonation stages. Although the yeasts act on sugars in both cases, the proportions (quantities) of yeasts as well as sugars are different. The wort has much more sugars than the fermented beer. Also, you pitch a lot more yeast at the beginning (prior to fermentation). After the fermentation, the yeasts convert a lot of the sugars to alcohol and CO2. The expended yeast themselves become inactive and settle at the bottom of the fermenter.

When you add the pre-defined measure of priming sugar to the bottling bucket, that's just enough to provide the remaining suspended yeasts the fuel needed to convert it to CO2 along with a little bit of alcohol (probably less than 0.5%).

So, since the number of yeast cells as well as sugars are low, it takes a while to generate the carbonation.

Many times, brewers use fining agents in the secondary to provide the beer more clarity to remove any suspended proteins, hop particles etc. . These fining agents also cause additional yeast to be extracted out of the beer along with other proteins. But all the yeast is not removed. There is still left. It is not uncommon for brewers to pitch a little quantity of yeast while priming to boost the carbonation process in such cases.

 

[WileECoyote]

Why does it take 2 weeks for Carbonation? Most of the Fermentation happens in the first week. Why 2 weeks for alittle bit of carbonation to happen.

It dosnt take 2 weeks to carb up most beers, It takes 3 weeks @ 70 degrees to properly carb up most beers, after that to properly get the co2 in the headspace to go into solution it takes 3 days in the fridge.

Cheers