More carbonation

[Bear85]

I'm curious if there is a way to get more carbonation in my beers. We use about 5oz of priming sugar, and are leaving them for 3-4 weeks before trying them, but we're only getting a little carbonation. These aren't stout beers, IPAs and such.

I don't know if this is related, but we're getting very little trub in the bottom of the bottle, maybe a millimetre or two at the most, in some bottles barely anything nothing noticeable.

Is the lack of yeast in the bottles related to the lack of carbonation. Logic says it might be, but I don't want to jump to that conclusion. We typically ferment the beers for 6 weeks, so the yeast cake is pretty compacted. Should we stir it up a little when transferring to the bottling bucket?

 

[badhabit]

It depends on what you are brewing and the conditions of the mash, boil and fermentation but....6 week fermentation sounds a little long. I ferment most wort a week in primary and two in secondary then into conditioning. (I like to use the secondary and feel like I get a better product) I have no real problems with carbing when I bottle condition. You might be dropping a little too much yeast out for a strong and quick carbination. I assume here that you are using the correct amount of priming sugar. If you want to check it out just drop your fermentation time a little and check results. In the mean time a little longer condition should build more carbination.

 

[Toga]

6 weeks in primary will not hurt the beer. I regularly leave my beer in primary for at least 4 weeks or longer with no issues. If doing a long primary suck up a little yeast when racking to the bottling bucket to help speed up carbonation. I also use a bit more sugar if I want more carbonation. Just don't go overboard so you end up with bottle bombs. A couple extra table spoons goes a long way

 

[frazier]

There should still be plenty of yeast at 6 weeks. If you were waiting six months, maybe add some yeast back in at bottling. But if you want to experiment, dip the end of your siphon into the trub for a few seconds as you rack to the bottling bucket.

I assume you are storing the bottles at room temperature, right?

 

[unionrdr]

Idk about 6 weeks,in his case & the yeast he's using,it sounds like too much is settling out. Barring the fact that they're conditioning too cold. And 5oz of priming sugar is over 2.3 atmospheres of carbonation. A little above minimum for ales.

 

[Bear85]

Yes, we've been storing the bottles at room temperature, its at least 72F. By the time we get to putting the last of the batch in the fridge they'll have had about 5 weeks.

I'll try sucking up the trub a bit more. I didn't realize 6 weeks of fermentation might be pushing it a bit too long, we have two batches on the go at once (brewing every 3 weeks), that timescale just came out of how fast we're typically drinking the things and have enough bottles free for bottling.

I'm due to bottle another one tomorrow (it's had at LEAST 6 weeks, probably almost 7 now!), I'll try and suck up a good bit of the trub too. In future I'll try and keep fermentation times down to more around 4 weeks. Thanks for the advice!

 

[badhabit]

Good luck, and I hope it works out for you. Just an FYI if you have not reused yeast from the trub before, try and take the yeast as close to the middle of the cake as possible, it will be the cleanest. Not an exact science but...