Carb Still Low

[voodoochild7]

I am now drinkin' my first brew. Still very low carb after 3 weeks in the bottles. It has a good head on it after poring but not a lot of little bubblies in the brew itself. I posted this situation before and the answer was wait a week so I did. It's still dang tastey brew but a bit watery. I think the problem was the directions I had for my brew said after racking to the secondary add water to withen 3 inches of the top of the carboy. Problem here I just realized is the recipe kit assumed a 5 gallon carboy so like adding an extra 1/2 gallon but the carboy that came with the equiptment kit was 6.8 gallons. DOH!!! Good thing I decided not to add water to all my subsequent batches. I used only 1 and 1/4 cup of DME for priming was this low for close to 7 gallons of beer. My second brew which had no added water has been in the bottles for just about a week and it's already as carbonated as this one could the water be the problem here? I tastes great but not a lot of body. Is corn sugar better? I just think of myself as a purist so didn't want to go that way but if the second batch is low in carbonations maybe I'll do it as it's more fermentable. I don't want to go with more DME and start the gushers.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Priming with DME takes longer than corn sugar.

One thing you have to look at is the ambient temp in the room you set your bottles in. If it's under 72F then it could take a month or longer to get really good carbonation (plenty of bubbles like the commercial beer).

You didn't say what you brewed. If it's an ale then you really don't want all those bubbles, especially if you already have a good head on your beer.

 

[Kaiser]

... Is corn sugar better? I just think of myself as a purist so didn't want to go that way but if the second batch is low in carbonations maybe I'll do it as it's more fermentable. I don't want to go with more DME and start the gushers.

Corn sugar can instantly be fermented by the remaining yeast in your beer. That's why it works so quickly. But it doen't really comply with the idea of using only barley, water, hops and yeast.

If you want to prime with DME (or even some of the original wort) it's called kraeusen. In order to do this properly you will have to get the yeast started with a wort made from the DME as if you would make beer from it. Boil it, chill it, aerate it, fill it into a small fermenter or large bottle and pich some yeast. Once it has reached high kraeusen (foam on top), mix it with the flat beer and bottle it.

If this is not done, the yeast lacks the nutrients necessary to ferment the sugers in DME and it takes much longer. I haven't done it myself yet, but for my next batch I plan to keep some yeast from the primary. This yeast I will then pitch into a wort made for kraeusening 2 days before I plan to bottle. If it doesn't work out as I expected it I will use corn sugar as a backup.

I think "Joy of Home Brewing" and "The Compete Guide To Home Brewing" has some information on this technic.

 

[Walker]

If you want to prime with DME (or even some of the original wort) it's called kraeusen. In order to do this properly you will have to get the yeast started with a wort made from the DME as if you would make beer from it. Boil it, chill it, aerate it, fill it into a small fermenter or large bottle and pich some yeast. Once it has reached high kraeusen (foam on top), mix it with the flat beer and bottle it.

If this is not done, the yeast lacks the nutrients necessary to ferment the sugers in DME and it takes much longer.

It doesn't have to be that complicated.

I primed my IPA with DME in an effort to get a little more malt in to balance out the mega dose of hops I had put into it. I did nothing fancy with the DME... just boiled 1.25 cups in a pint of water, put it into the bottling bucket, and racked the beer into it (just like I would have done with corn sugar).

That brew carbonated nicely in about 2 weeks. I had similar results with 2 or 3 other batches that I primed with DME.

-walker

 

[SwAMi75]

I think you answered your own question.....sounds to me like you used too little DME for priming. Besides that, as HB99 pointed out, another factor could be the temp you're storing your bottles at.