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Carbonation problem!

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dave1226

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Aug 30, 2011
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I made a stout. Did everything according to specs. Bottled. And now here I am a few weeks later and there's no carbonation. Is there anyway to save it? All the flavors are there. It just taste like flat beer. It's my 4th time making beer so I'm not sure where I could've gone wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
What do you mean by a "few weeks?" How long has it ACTUALLY been in the bottle? And at what temp are you storing them?

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, 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.


Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....

chart.jpg


If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolproof 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.
 
Thank you revvy, you answered my question. It's been bottled for 3 weeks. So it seems that it's just not ready yet. I'll hold off from popping another bottle for 4 more weeks and hope that helps. My friend that is a seasoned brewer seems to not know a whole lot about brewing and I'm just as I'm sure everyone else here has done and that's learn by trial and error.

Thank you so very much revvy. I greatly appreciate it.
 
I want llama's diagram for my profile picture. I love that thing.
 
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