Carbonation of tripel

michaellindopp · May 30, 2015

Hey to all,
Bottled my first attempt at a tripel at the start of February so it's been 4 months in bottle. The carbonation is super low still. I have tried a bottle here and there to see how they're progressing and they have a sweetness to them so there is sugar in there.
The O.G. was 1.085 and F.G. was 1.005 so the sugar from the malt was pretty much all consumed by the yeast(trappist SY-065). So the only sugar that really could be in there is the table sugar I used to carbonate. I know bigger beers need more time but I've had D.IPA's with 8.5% carbonate in 4/5 weeks.
Will i need to reopen the bottles and put a little yeast in each bottle or should I just stick it old and be patience.

Calder · May 30, 2015

Batch size, how much priming sugar, how long before bottling, what temp are the bottles stored at?

Sounds like there should be no problem carbing.

michaellindopp · May 31, 2015

2 batches of 5 gallons.
6/7g p / litre.
1 month in fermenter before bottling. They'll condition in the bottle.
I need the fermenters for more beer.
The room they're store stays about 18 -20°C.
I've flipped the bottles before to make sure the yeast is in suspension and put the the right way again after a few days. I tested a beer yesterday just to see how the carbonation was during and it's very little but the beer had a sweetness to it so sugar is present.

beergolf · May 31, 2015

Bigger beer (1.085) and cool temps is most likely your problem 64-68 degrees is on the cool side to carbonate a brew. Get the temp up if you can and see what happens.

As you know a bigger beer can take longer to carb and at those temps it dramatically increases that time.

michaellindopp · May 31, 2015

Cheers man. I'll bring 2 or 3 to another area for a couple of weeks to see what happens. I'll let you know. Thanks again.

Calder · May 31, 2015

Looks like you used a decent amount off priming sugar (about 4.5 ozs to 5 US gallons, if my calculation is right).

64 F can be too low for some yeast strains.

michaellindopp · May 31, 2015

Already moved to another place with a better temp so in a few weeks I'll test one. If the beer improves I'll move all. I probably won't drink the beers for at least another few months but I'm just curious to know that the carbonation process has happened and also it's nice to know how the flavour moves with time. Cheers all.