Bottle Carbonation

[keith824]

Does a higher gravity beer take longer to carbonate in the bottles?????
I brewed a Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter, which was an altered extract kit. I added an addition 2.5 lbs om DME to kick up the gravity. It fermented two weeks then I moved it to secondary and sat another couple weeks. I finally got it bottled and let it sit for an additional two weeks to carbonate. Not sure if it matters but I used the Priming Sugar to carbonate. So after two weeks of what I was hoping was carbonation, I opened a bottle and found it to be barely carbonated. It has a great taste and flavor but is still flat. Will it just take 3 or 4 weeks to fully carbonate???

 

[normonster]

I bet you don't have a whole lot of healthy yeast left after that long of a fermentation cycle. You're probably looking at a much longer wait for them to carb up properly. I'd sample at maybe one week intervals but I can't speculate on when it might finish, if at all.

You didn't happen to add any fresh yeast when you bottled, did you? I've read here that this is a practice some employ for barrel aged beers and those with super long primary/secondary.

Hope it works out for you. Sounds like you have a lot invested.

 

[McKnuckle]

In general, yes - the higher ABV impedes yeast metabolism to some degree, and they will work more slowly to ferment the priming sugar. What were the OG and FG of your beer? Depending on how many bottles you have, you can try one each week til you're happy. Be sure to put the trial bottle in the fridge at least 24 hours before sampling, so CO2 from the bottle's headspace can fully dissolve into the liquid.

Also, the timing of the carbonation process is affected by the temperature at which the bottles are stored. Warmer is better if you're in a hurry - at least 65F but 70F is better.

[Edit: in response to the post above mine; 4 weeks is not an exceptionally long fermentation - I'd see that as a minor factor at best.]

 

[keith824]

I pitched two packs of the Wyest, hoping that would be enough. No I didn't add any yeast at Bottling......may start.
I will check another one in a week.

 

[howamidriving]

The short answer is yes. I'd also be in no hurry to drink a beer like that anyway. It will almost certainly be a much more drinkable beer after 6 months or so in the bottle.

 

[WrQth]

Yes it could take that long. I had 5 gallon batch of a 1.080 stout that took almost 5 weeks to bottle carb though the first week the temp was averaging 62F before I managed to get it to 70F.

 

[dlaramie08]

I miss revvy.

 

[beergolf]

4 weeks in fermenters is in no way too long for the yeast. You will have plenty of yeast to carbonate the brew. No need to add yeast when you bottle a brew like that. I did a Belgian dark that was 11.5% and sat in the fermenter for 2 1/2 months. It took a while to carb up, but now it is perfect.

Now being a higher gravity brew, it will take much longer to carbonate. But as howamidriving mentioned a beer like needs some age anyway so just set it aside for a while longer and it will carb up

Edit: found the lazy llama drawing that revvy posts.

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/data/1/medium/chart.jpg

 

[normonster]

Lol...I thought op wrote that he secondaried for months. Good times!

 

[A2HB]

I brew mostly .080 and higher beers and I can say that in my (limited) experience there really is no set time on how long carbonation time can take. I've had beers I brewed that have carbonated in 10 days and I've had some where it took 2 months to get a nice bit of carbonation. So far it seems that my rye beers have been the most consistent with taking more time to carb up, but I've had issues with bba stouts being slow as well. I wonder if using the darker malts has anything to do with it? Probably not, cause I've got a .090 porter I'm drinking now that carbed up in 12 days and is wonderfully bubbly.

 

[toxdoc49]

I had the same problem with the same beer. Based on this I will just let the bottles sit.