AG and carbonation

[Blackhawkbrew]

I'm new to Ag brewing (3 batches) and I've used BeerSmith for all of them. I've noticed that when I used the amount of priming sugar BeerSmith called for, my beers seem under-carbonated? Is there a difference between AG and Partials when it comes to carbing?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

There is no difference. Did you use BeerSmith to calculate the sugar for your previous recipes?

 

[Malticulous]

If you bottled colder than you fermented beersmith is wrong. You need to use the highest temp the beer has been to calculate proper priming.

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

Yes, I used BeerSmith for my last few partials before I went AG. I know with the first few extract kits I began with they called for 5 oz of priming sugar. I noticed that BeerSmith mostly calls for between 3 and 4 oz. Could it just be the styles I've brewed, 1st was EdWort's Hause Ale, the 2nd was a Moctoberfest, and the 3rd is a Spiced Holiday Ale.

 

[Malticulous]

No. 4 oz corn sugar is low. Something is amiss. I use this:
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

 

[Revvy]

There's no difference in terms of carbonation between types of methodologies you employ, beer is beer....how long are you waiting to see if they are carbed, and at what temp are you carbing/conditiong them at?

Gravity and storage temp are the biggest factors in carbonation/conditioning times...Less than seventy severely slows down the yeast...2 degrees may seem like nothing to us, but to micro-organisms that could be like 10.

ALL beers will reach their level of carbonation eventually. In fact, it's possible (and proven by running the numbers in beersmith) to NOT add priming sugar and get minimal carbonation/style of a few volumes in time (in old brewing british brewing books they didn't add sugar to some ordinary bitters, and milds and relied on time and temp to do the work naturally.)

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

More info can be found here....Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

There's even a nifty video in their of carbonation over the weeks.

 

[Malticulous]

Odd ravvy, cuz all my beers carb up in a week and I've gotten very few gushers (the last bottled bottle used to get me until I learned to stir more often.)

Take the software out and do it yourself.
http://byo.com/resources/carbonation

British beers don't need priming because the residual CO2 is enough for some styles.