Has anyone had a sudden jump in carbonation a few days after priming. It isn't a big deal but I am intrigued.
I bottled and primed a "test bottle" with the original juice on 27 Dec. FG then was 1.001 after 10 days, and I added AJ to 1.009 (a bit more than I wanted but it is a bit hard to take it out once you have put it in). The idea was to only put in enough AJ (say to 1.005) to develop about 2.0 - 2.5 volumes of CO2 on the basis that once all the sugar is gone, the yeast stop producing CO2... just like priming with sugar.
I have done this successfully before and quite predictably CO2 pressure started building at the rate of around 0.1 to 0.2.0 bar (something like 2 psi) per day. The test bottle (with TF-6) followed this pattern but perhaps a little more enthusiastically than usual.
Day 0 - 0.0 bar/0psi
Day 1 - 0.4 bar/6psi,
Day 2- 0.6 bar/9psi,
Day 3 - 0.8 bar/12psi,
Day 4 - 1 bar/15psi,
Day 5 - 1.7 bar/25psi... yikes! almost half a volume of CO2 in a day but the temperature was up a bit (from around 22C/72F to 30C/85F). I have been monitoring the test bottle in the house rather than in the cool store which is constant at 16C/60F.
Day 6 today - 2 bar 29 psi... a bit enthusiastic but not as much as yesterday. The temperature inside is 25C/77F.
If it goes beyond 2.5 or 3.0 bar (i.e. somewhere up to 3 volumes of CO2) I plan to release a bit of pressure and keep monitoring until it stabilises in that range. This outcome is partly because I was a bit heavy handed with the priming. Of course I can pasteurise to stop this but I wanted a "clean" fully fermented TF-6 without any residual sugar to compare with a similar AS-2 batch to see which yeast I use next.
Anyhow, I am surmising that the yeast population might have quickly reached a level where the abundant sugar is being consumed very quickly due to the relatively high ambient temperature, but I have not come across this before. No extra yeast was added, and I wouldn't have expected temperature to have such effect on the fermentation rate.
So, any views on what is going on will be welcome... just something to think about early in the New Year!
I bottled and primed a "test bottle" with the original juice on 27 Dec. FG then was 1.001 after 10 days, and I added AJ to 1.009 (a bit more than I wanted but it is a bit hard to take it out once you have put it in). The idea was to only put in enough AJ (say to 1.005) to develop about 2.0 - 2.5 volumes of CO2 on the basis that once all the sugar is gone, the yeast stop producing CO2... just like priming with sugar.
I have done this successfully before and quite predictably CO2 pressure started building at the rate of around 0.1 to 0.2.0 bar (something like 2 psi) per day. The test bottle (with TF-6) followed this pattern but perhaps a little more enthusiastically than usual.
Day 0 - 0.0 bar/0psi
Day 1 - 0.4 bar/6psi,
Day 2- 0.6 bar/9psi,
Day 3 - 0.8 bar/12psi,
Day 4 - 1 bar/15psi,
Day 5 - 1.7 bar/25psi... yikes! almost half a volume of CO2 in a day but the temperature was up a bit (from around 22C/72F to 30C/85F). I have been monitoring the test bottle in the house rather than in the cool store which is constant at 16C/60F.
Day 6 today - 2 bar 29 psi... a bit enthusiastic but not as much as yesterday. The temperature inside is 25C/77F.
If it goes beyond 2.5 or 3.0 bar (i.e. somewhere up to 3 volumes of CO2) I plan to release a bit of pressure and keep monitoring until it stabilises in that range. This outcome is partly because I was a bit heavy handed with the priming. Of course I can pasteurise to stop this but I wanted a "clean" fully fermented TF-6 without any residual sugar to compare with a similar AS-2 batch to see which yeast I use next.
Anyhow, I am surmising that the yeast population might have quickly reached a level where the abundant sugar is being consumed very quickly due to the relatively high ambient temperature, but I have not come across this before. No extra yeast was added, and I wouldn't have expected temperature to have such effect on the fermentation rate.
So, any views on what is going on will be welcome... just something to think about early in the New Year!
