carbing to style/undercarbonation

[Talonracer67]

Last year I had some really overcarbinated beer, so this year with my jump to AG I started carbing to style using this:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Well I have 3 batches of beer (6 cases) that I did this way. The first is a Bell's Two Hearted Ale clone. After nearly 4 weeks there is almost no carbonation. Tried a brown ale after two weeks and its exactly the same as the IPA. Thing is the IPA i tried at two weeks and it hasn't improved any.

Only thing i can think of is the cold, i have the cases in the warmest part of the house (near my stove) but they still only get like low to mid 60's. Thing was i was carbing up in the basement last year and they were pretty well carbed up after two weeks in a mid 60 degree basement. I really hope I haven't ruined 6 cases of beer.

I know, I know....I need a kegging system

 

[masskrug]

What and how much did you use?

I use 4 ounces of corn sugar. Usually get some carb after a week at ~75' storage.

60 is pretty cool. It will take a bit longer.

 

[Talonracer67]

Every style had a little different requirement but most of them i did around 3.0 - 3.3 oz of corn sugar. I'm gonna throw that calculator in the garbage I think and just go with 4.0 oz for everything.

 

[fartinmartin]

I think there is more to the temperature for carbing than the amount of sugar. I use .8/gallon for everything.
The amount of sugar be it 3 or 4 ounces is diluted across the 30 to 40 bottles the actual difference in the amount of sugar going in to each bottle is quite small, even if it is 25%. The over carb can sometimes be that the brew hadn't completely finished, so as well as the priming sugar you also have residual fermentation sugar left.

 

[Talonracer67]

My heater is a pellet stove that has a heat exchanger in it, so the top only gets warm to the touch, I'm gonna try sitting the IPA on it for a week. Should raise the bottles up to 75 at least.

 

[MikeBTexas]

The fermentation temp. of the wort is the key factor and not the ambient temp.
I installed a thermometer in my fermentor lid and on average the wort runs 5 deg.F warmer than ambient. It could be more if there is a very active fermentation.

Try the calc. again and add 5 or 6 deg. to it and that is probably where you should be with the sugar amount.

 

[Yooper]

Every style had a little different requirement but most of them i did around 3.0 - 3.3 oz of corn sugar. I'm gonna throw that calculator in the garbage I think and just go with 4.0 oz for everything.

That's what I do- 4.0 ounces for lower carbed beers, and 5.0 ounces for more highly carbed beers. It works perfectly for me, and I never have overcarbed or undercarbed beers.

Still, 60 degrees is probably too low for them to carb up well. Can you stick a couple in a warmer place like a cupboard or on top of the fridge, to see how they are in a week or two in a warmer place?

 

[BigDaddyBeard]

Try inverting the bottles a few times and get the yeast back into suspension.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[fartinmartin]

Bigdaddybeard, I've read that before and been scared of it, if you invert the bottles dose that not negate all the care we took to keep the oxygen out, the head space at that time is O2, it's not co2 yet ?