bottling and refrigeration

[Wyrmwood]

So I have a few extract kits under my belt and have noticed that they seem a lot "fizzier" after having been in the fridge a few days.

What I mean is, on "drinking day" ~2-3 weeks after bottling, if I put a 6 pack in the fridge, a few hours later it seems a bit flat, and this seems to be the case up to a month later (a month past bottling day, in fridge only a few hours) but if I put a 6 pack in the fridge and leave it there for 3 or 4 days, it seems like it has more carb... My basement's reasonably cold, so sometimes if I forget to put some in the fridge I'll drink some that haven't been refrigerated, and those seem a bit flat too.

Am I imagining things or is there something to "fridge conditioning"???

 

[Revvy]

Do you know they are actially carbed ub BEFORE you put a bunch more in? Because if they are not carbed when you put them in the fridge it retards the carbing process, dormant yeast (below 55-ish) will not carb your beer (so no, there's no such thing as fridge carbing.)

More than likely you are fridging them at the point where they are inconsistantly carbed across the batch, where some bottles are and some aren't yet carbed. So you are randomly grabbing some that are carbed and some that aren't...

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. The sugar solution integrates itself pretty well when you rack (despite what many new brewers may believe)
BUT, just a tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Each little bottle is a seperate microcosm, so they will react slightly different to each other. But usually they all will balance out given enough time.

But really with time all the bottles in a batch will carb up...

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

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.

I explain this and more, in my blog, here Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Chilling the beer is going to in a sense stop them at the point they are at in the carbing cycle, ALTHOUGH the cold will draw the co2 into solution. Thie carbed ones will be carbed, and the uncarbed ones won't be.

 

[Wyrmwood]

Do you know they are actially carbed ub BEFORE you put a bunch more in?

I believe so. I know that post was a bit scattered, but maybe I can explain better...

On my first batch, I put about a case in the fridge on bottling day (14 days) and I thought they were flat. However, a few days later, those beers I did not drink but where in the fridge a few days (after bottle conditioning at room temp for 14 days) were really fizzy compared to the ones I drank on "drinking day", even though they did not actually receive any more "conditioning".
The remainder I put in the fridge after about 3 weeks - again, that evening they tasted flat, but afterward (at least 1 day in the fridge) they tasted "fizzy".

On my second batch, I only put 1 six pack in the fridge, so the rest could continue conditioning.. same results; that is, if they were only in the fridge a few hours, they were flat, if they were in the fridge more than a day or so, they were fizzy. On my second batch, I conditioned a couple of beers only 10 days and some as much as 30 days. I assumed the 10 day beers would be a bit flat (was out of other beer....) but was a bit surprised to find the 30 day beers flat if I drank them after a short time in the fridge

Because if they are not carbed when you put them in the fridge it retards the carbing process, dormant yeast (below 55-ish) will not carb your beer (so no, there's no such thing as fridge carbing.)

More than likely you are fridging them at the point where they are inconsistantly carbed across the batch, where some bottles are and some aren't yet carbed. So you are randomly grabbing some that are carbed and some that aren't...

I'm following you, except that would be quite a coincidence, for all the ones that were fully carbed to be grabbed after a few days in the fridge and all the ones that weren't fully carbed to be grabbed after only a few hours... right?

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. The sugar solution integrates itself pretty well when you rack (despite what many new brewers may believe)
BUT, just a tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Each little bottle is a seperate microcosm, so they will react slightly different to each other. But usually they all will balance out given enough time.

But really with time all the bottles in a batch will carb up...

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

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.

I explain this and more, in my blog, here Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Chilling the beer is going to in a sense stop them at the point they are at in the carbing cycle, ALTHOUGH the cold will draw the co2 into solution. Thie carbed ones will be carbed, and the uncarbed ones won't be.

If we assume for a moment that all my beers were fully bottle conditioned (which I'm sure some of the earlier ones weren't), could this "drawing the co2 into solution" have something to do with why they seem fizzier to me after longer times in the fridge?

Thanks for the reply and the wealth of information

After reading your bottling tips, I think in the future, I will continue to allow the remainder to condition at room temp, even if I steal off a few early, but in any case, will always try to give them a couple of days in the fridge, so they can "draw the co2 into solution".