Bottle Carbonation Question

[IamAPenguin12]

So I recently brewed an Imperial Stout and I threw 4 lbs of corn sugar in the brew kettle in order to bump up the alcohol by volume. Now, I have never actually done this before but I tasted a small sample of the beer and it tastes delicious but, it also tastes like it has already carbonated due to the 4 lbs of corn sugar. It does not taste flat in any way, it tastes full and carbonated to me. Anyways, my question is. During the bottling process, should I add sugar as usual to carbonate in bottles or will that over carbonate the beer? I don't want to ruin this batch with over carbonation because it's a really tastey beer.

 

[meschaefer]

In short, yes but it has nothing to do with the fact that you used corn sugar during brewing. There will likely be some CO2 left in the beer from fermentation.

When figuring out how much corn sugar to add to the beer during bottling, you need to take into account the temp of the beer to get an idea of how much residual carbonation there is. The better tables and calculators will account for this, and will want you to plug in a temperature reading. I use the highest temperature the beer sat at (for at least a few days) after active fermentation is done. Just Google bottle carbonation calculator and you'll have a few choices to choose from.

 

[BigFloyd]

1) You need to make sure that your ferment is completely done via gravity readings before bottling.

2) The yeast will eat all of that simple sugar you added (4lbs is a load of sugar).

3) If you want it to be carbonated, add the normal amount of priming sugar for the carb level you desire.

4) This kind of beer will take longer (sometimes twice as long) to carb and a few months to properly condition. Pop the first one around Valentine's Day.

 

[fartinmartin]

Big is great, good is better, are you pushing the boundaries a bit early?

 

[IamAPenguin12]

1) You need to make sure that your ferment is completely done via gravity readings before bottling.

2) The yeast will eat all of that simple sugar you added (4lbs is a load of sugar).

3) If you want it to be carbonated, add the normal amount of priming sugar for the carb level you desire.

4) This kind of beer will take longer (sometimes twice as long) to carb and a few months to properly condition. Pop the first one around Valentine's Day.

So what FG should I expect to be looking at in order to know its ready? Around 1.019? Also, thanks for the tips! I'm definitely going to be aging a good few bottles of this in my cellar.

 

[BigFloyd]

So what FG should I expect to be looking at in order to know its ready? Around 1.019? Also, thanks for the tips! I'm definitely going to be aging a good few bottles of this in my cellar.

The FG is influenced by mash temp, grain bill, yeast selection, pitch rate, fermentation profile, etc. There's no way that any of us can accurately tell you a specific number value for what it ought to be for your batch.