Carbonation Issues

[BradTheGeek]

Hello everyone again. I have my 3rd batch in bottles. It has been bottled for almost a month now, and the carbonation is light and uneven.

The beer is a scotch ale, not too heavy (OG 1.080, FG 1.030). It was aged with some whiskey barrel chips for a few days, then bottled. When I bottled I boiled up some DME, I don't remember the exact amount, but I used several calcualtors and they were all close so I averaged them. I think I had about .25 to .5 gallon more beer then I calculated for though.

Now, almost a month in the bottles (at 67-72 degrees), it is barely carbonated. I have had one or two bottles about 2 weeks in pour with a small head, but most have almost no head even with an aggressive pour. There is some carbonation, because it bubbles slowly after pouring and you can see it in the glass, just very little.

This is my second batch with poor carbonation. The last was an IIPA conditioned with dextrose, and it came out similarly. It was a pretty big beer (10.5 to 10.7 abv) though and I assumed the yeast just gave up in all that alcohol.

Now I am wondering if there is something I am doing wrong. Another question I have is could it be a capping/capper issue? perhaps they are not sealing enough to hold higher pressures?

I don't think that's the case though because I used the same capper with a cider I made that carbonated well (it didn't hold a head but it had pleanty of co2)

 

[norsk]

Could be a lot of things. How long was it in primary and or secondary? Did you add yeast at bottling? Might want to go with table or corn sugar in the future, don't read of many people using DME these days...

Though I beg to differ, some people don't consider 1 month to be all that long for carbonating in the bottle. Might want to give it a few more weeks, some wait even longer...

For beers that big, I always add yeast (same strain usually) and always use table sugar incorporated fully into the beer. Usually good to go in 7-10 days...

If worst comes to worst, you can always open the bottles and add a mixture of sugar and yeast and things should be right as rain in a couple of weeks. It's been a while, but when I first started out I had to open a few batches and re-prime with sugar and yeast... Then again, many people here never add yeast so go figure... Good luck..

 

[ACbrewer]

One review I read on DME for carbonation is that it takes longer than sugar.

Also with a 1.080 OG, you should expect it to take longer to carb up. Might take as long as 2 months. I had one in this range, came out great, but 2 months in the bottles.

rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70F for a normal (1.040 og) beer longer for higher gravities.

 

[flars]

Bigger beers will take more time to carbonate. Wait two more weeks then chill a beer for five days to see if there is a noticeable difference. If the difference is noticeable then time is the only problem. As far as problems go one of the very best to encounter.
It would be helpful to know what volume of CO2 you primed for. This is one of the notes I keep on my brew sheet for future reference.

 

[BradTheGeek]

Thanks for the input. IIRC I was aiming for middle of the style so about 1 volume. With a temp of 68, that came out to about 1oz of DME. I boiled the DME in a cup or two of water and put it in the bottom of the bottling bucket before siphoning from my secondary.

I will try to let it sit and not drink it up, and see how it goes.