BJCP carbonation guidelines

[TipsyDragon]

i dont know about everyone else but i like to carbonate my beers to style. ive found plenty of calculators online to help figure out how much priming sugar/psi to use. my favorite is Tasty Brew. but when i look at the BJCP guidelines for level of carbonation they use terms like "Medium to Medium High carbonation" to me this seems rather vague. especially since i am a numbers guy and like getting as close as i can to a specific level of carbonation.

so my question is what ranges do the BJCP mean with each of their carbonation descriptions?

 

[JoeBronco]

British-style ales 1.5 - 2.0
Porter, stout 1.7 - 2.3
Belgian ales 1.9 - 2.4
European lagers 2.2 - 2.7
American ales & lagers 2.2 - 2.7
Lambic 2.4 - 2.8
Fruit lambic 3.0 - 4.5
German wheat beer 3.3 - 4.5

 

[JoeBronco]

 

[TipsyDragon]

thanks but i've found that too and i keep finding conflicting info and that's not necessarily what the BJCP uses.

 

[JoeBronco]

The BJCP doesn't have a "set guideline" that states the exact carbonation level for each beer style. There are to many different beers out there. If they told us EXACTLY what our beers should have (carbonation or otherwise) all the beers would taste the same.

Every beer is different, just like almost every BJCP judge will give the same beer a different score.

 

[TipsyDragon]

true you do have a point ... they do give guidelines on color, OG, FG, IBU and ABV but are rather vague on carbonation. i guess i'm just trying to get a handle on what they consider low, medium, and high carbonation. to me it would be 1-2 is low, 2-3 is medium, and 3+ is high. i have a feeling that its not quite that simple and there is probably some overlap between all the levels.

i just don't want to enter another beer in a contest and have the judges think its off on the carbonation when technically i've carbed it to style using the things you and i found.

 

[JoeBronco]

Ive done well with:

2.3 on American ales
2.7 on IPA & IIPA's
2.0 on Porters

But it really depends on the beer. If you keg your beer its easier to get the carb to taste. Its more of a "what feels right" kind of thing. Ive gone as low as 1.5 on my robust porters.


Here is another good site that can help... http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

 

[trevorc13]

I'm curious about this question as well and there wasn't really a clear answer. Any other thoughts on the volumes of co2 per carbonation description.