Carbonation question

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Evanw

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Hello everyone, my very first post on this forum.... So forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong spot, etc.

Anyway, I recently made my very first home brewed beer. I have been making wine for a while, but had not ventured into the beer arena until now. I purchased (locally) a coopers Mexican cerveza kit as well as carbonation drops. The local supplier did not have the brew enhancer in stock and suggested that, in it's place, I could simply use 1kg of regular sugar. I did so and the brewing seemed to work fine. I racked-off once the primary fermentation was done and, and allowed an extra week or so for secondary fermentation.

When it came time to bottle the brew, I took some advice from our local bottle recycler, and used grolsch bottles.... this is where the problems started. Because the grolsch bottles are 450 mls, and because I was using coopers carbonation drops, I'm concerned that I will not have enough carbonation in the beer. Just yesterday, about 1 week after bottling, I tried a chilled bottle and found it was almost flat.

Do I just need to give it more time in the bottle to achieve correct carbonation levels? Can I add a little more sugar to each bottle to increase the carbonation level? Other potential solutions.....or am I SOL?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

Evan
 
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 foolroof 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.

I've carbed hundreds of gallons of beer, and never had a beer that wasn't carbed, or under carbed or anything of the sort (Except for a batch where I accidently mixed up lactose or Maltodextrine for priming sugar). Some took awhile, (as I said up to six months) but they ALL eventually carbed.

I don't believe there are ANY carbing problems (besides the rare capper that maybe puts a bad seal on a bottle, or tired yeast in a HIGH gravity beer) that isn't simple impatience.

As I said in my bottling blog, it's really a fool proof process, you add sugar, keep the beer above 70 and wait.

Also, since you are bottling in Grolshcs, 22's and pints usually take a week or so longer that 12 ounces.

A larger volume sized bottle usually needs more time to carb AND condition. I have some pints, 22 oz bombers and other sizes that I often use, but since I enter contests I usually also do a sixer or two of standard 12 ouncers for entering. And inevitably the 12 ouncers are done at least a week faster than the larger bottles....some times two weeks ahead of time...

Also the rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70 degrees for a normal grav 12 ounce bottle....to carb and condition....It takes longer for the yeasties to convert the larger volume in the bigger bottles to enough co2 in the headspace to be reabsorbed back into the solution...A ration I don't know how much...

Big Kahuna gives a good explanation here...
Simple. It's the ration of contact area just like in a keg. The c02 will need to pressurize the head space (Which takes LESS TIME) in a bigger bottle (More Yeast and sugar, roughly the same head space) but then it has to force that c02 into solution through the same contact area...thus it takes longer.
 
What he said (Revvy).

I know this is probably unnecessary, but since when has Cooper's can Mexican Cerveza kit with corn sugar in the boil become a high gravity beer? I know, I know. Nevermind...
 
i believe the coopers drops are for 12 oz. and 450 mls comes out to a little over 15? so they may be a little less carbed than intended. but shouldn't be flat. other than that,.. what revvy said. 1 week is too soon to judge carbonation. let it carb for 3 weeks. then put it in the fridge for a few days and check. if still not carbed wait a little longer.
 
Thanks everyone for the excellent response and advice. I knew coopers carb tabs were designed for 12 oz bottles but I wanted a slightly lower carbonation level in my beer.

Anyway, it sounds like I'm just being impatient on my first brew and that the solution is to wait for another couple weeks and try it again.

Will let everyone know how it turns out.

Cheers,
Evan
 
Well, it's been about 3 weeks or more from the time I originally bottled my first beer kit (Coopers Mexican Cerveza) and I have to say,you guys were absolutely right.... The issue of low carbonation has completely disappeared and I have a great beer! Thanks again for all the advice!

I want to try an amber sale beer next and almost picked up another cooper kit at the store but noticed it did not have a cap on the can (under which. I usually find the yeast and instructions). It was a Coopers Amber Ale. I noticed that some "kits" had the cap/instructions, while others didn't.

Is this a mistake or do I need to but something else to build the beer?

Evan

Ps: the kit was in a grocery store otherwise I would have asked for help (no other place to buy beer kits locally).
 
some of the Cooper's cans are actually beer kits. those have yeast and instructions. the ones with no cap, yeast or instructions are most likely coopers malt extract. they come in both hopped and unhopped varieties. those are usually used as part of a recipe in which you may add more extract, hops, yeast etc to complete the beer. there's a whole bunch of great malt extract recipes available in books, magazines and some of the best are here on HBT. a quick search of the recipe section here should give you all sorts of ideas for how to use that can.
 
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