Carbonation

[Hefftomology]

Hey, me and my friend have just bottled our stout.

We've added the suggested sugar amounts, (1tsp/1pnt if that's right) and I was just wondering how you can tell if its started carbonating. I mean, I suppose the obvious signs are bubbles and maybe a small head? but on a few bottles, nothing seems to have happened.

It's only been a week, and maybe I'm a bit to eager to see results. But if it hasn't carbonated properly, or carbonated enough, is there anyway to improve that now?

We made a lager ages ago that had the same kind of problem.. it was brewed correctly, and then we bottled, added the sugar. But it never really gained the carbonation..

Just wondering, how do you guys carbonate your beer naturally. And if anyone suggests force carbonation - what do we use? how much is it? etc.

Thanks

 

[Rick91981]

A week is not enough time. Give it 3+ weeks and then see how it is.

 

[Zider]

If one bottle is resealable then I use it a test bottle to monitor progress.

 

[KevinM]

Definitely give it over 3 weeks for the process of sugar consumption & co2 production then the reassorbance of co2 in to the liquid element and also the cleanup of the byproducts that the fermentation of the sugar creates.

The higher the alcohol content, the longer the wait I believe, since it happens slower.

Personally, I wouldn't try resealing since you're releasing co2 whenever you open it.
If you wanted to do some wasting, you could potentially do one week tests with each bottle just to go. Yep, that's not carbonated, yep, that's carbonated but tastes green, and yep, it's carbonated, doesn't taste green and has started to balance. And so on.
(I'm neither advising for or against it, just that it's possible, and that if you do, know that there's an aging process involved and not to go around asking about "green" beer.)

There's several force carbing links that are stickied, particularly with the non-beergun sticky.

 

[Hefftomology]

cheers guys, i thought i was being a bit eager. i'll give it a few weeks before i try one then, and i'll report back

 

[rickyspalding]

im about a week into bottling, and i have the flip tops, so i did want to test one as i knew it would be too early, but i had to!! Yes very cidery, as I have read this will happen, I will give it two more weeks, question is.. For priming I followed the Mr Beer directions and now I have sugar sediment at the bottom, the yeast will still be able to eat all that sugar, even though its not dissolved? Never following MR Beer directions again Thanks!!

 

[The_C_Tripp]

im about a week into bottling, and i have the flip tops, so i did want to test one as i knew it would be too early, but i had to!! Yes very cidery, as I have read this will happen, I will give it two more weeks, question is.. For priming I followed the Mr Beer directions and now I have sugar sediment at the bottom, the yeast will still be able to eat all that sugar, even though its not dissolved? Never following MR Beer directions again Thanks!!

Sugar sediment? You mean there's sugar in the bottom of the bottle?

The best way to prime your beer is to boil the appropriate amount of corn sugar in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes and let it cool. Pour the sugar water into your bottling bucket and then siphon the beer into the bottling bucket letting it mix thoroughly. Then bottle the beer.

If you did it this way and you see a layer of sediment on the bottom of the bottle, this is normal. It's yeast, not sugar.

 

[rickyspalding]

i did not, mr beer basically said, add granulated sugar, add beer, cap bottle, invert several times, wait at least one week, and best to wait 2 to 3 weeks. This was a first batch ever, so I don't plan on doing this again, I guess this will take some time....

 

[jeepinjeepin]

My Mr. Beer Stout came out a little undercarbonated. Coincidence? Maybe. I did 5 other batches of Mr. Beer before moving on that all came out fine.

 

[The_C_Tripp]

Darker brews such as stouts will take longer to carb up and condition. But I'm surprised that the instructions say to just add granulate sugar.

You could easily contaminate the brew and also sugar doesn't dissolve easily at room temperature. Do what I suggested in my previous post. 4 ounces of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch is sufficient.

 

[KevinM]

Yeast will be able to eat the sugar if undissolved. I do the same thing of adding the sugar to the bottle sometimes, usually when I'm doing only a few bottles and want to bottle from a primary. (5 750ml bottles for example, then I don't have to clean the extra container)

The main thing about dissolving sugar before bottling, is primarily for bottling batches, because you can stir in the sugar-water mix and get that evenly distributed before bottling (50 12oz bottles, cause it'd be a pain to fill 50 individual bottles with sugar)