Carbonation

[DerekPruder]

I made an Australlian Lager about a month ago when i was done bottling it i put 12 in the fridge and the rest in a case in a closet for later use. I let the 12 sit for 2 weeks and tried them and there was no carbonation with a hell of an aftertaste. After the forth week I ended up dumping the 12 that were in the fridge and move on to the ones in the closet. These had good carbonation and the aftertaste was not as strong. My question is did i put the 12 in the fridge too soon and ended up destroying the carbonation???

 

[Yooper]

I made an Australlian Lager about a month ago when i was done bottling it i put 12 in the fridge and the rest in a case in a closet for later use. I let the 12 sit for 2 weeks and tried them and there was no carbonation with a hell of an aftertaste. After the forth week I ended up dumping the 12 that were in the fridge and move on to the ones in the closet. These had good carbonation and the aftertaste was not as strong. My question is did i put the 12 in the fridge too soon and ended up destroying the carbonation???

Short answer- yes. You need to let them sit at room temperature (70 degrees or so) for about two-three weeks to carbonate. Then you can refrigerate them and/or cold condition them when the level of carbonation is satisfactory. At fridge temperatures, you caused the yeast to go dormant.

 

[DerekPruder]

thanks for your help

 

[the_bird]

The bad news is - the yeast in the 12 you dumped were dormant, not dead. You could have taken them out, put them at room temp, and two or three weeks later had 12 nicely carbed beverages.

One of the rules at homebrewtalk.com we have (and it's not a real rule) is - ASK US BEFORE YOU DUMP THE BEER!

 

[westerntrout]

to add to the general discussion, i finished my first batch a few months ago and it was awful! cidery icky swill. i'm thinking that this brewing thing is way past my abilities but everyone was saying to other noobs, let it sit, wait, don't be impatient. and they were right, 6weeks later it was pretty good, not perfect but eminately drinkable and people were asking if i had any more they could try. 6 wks made the difference from ick to quite passable

 

[McKBrew]

to add to the general discussion, i finished my first batch a few months ago and it was awful! cidery icky swill. i'm thinking that this brewing thing is way past my abilities but everyone was saying to other noobs, let it sit, wait, don't be impatient. and they were right, 6weeks later it was pretty good, not perfect but eminately drinkable and people were asking if i had any more they could try. 6 wks made the difference from ick to quite passable

You can make good beer no matter what you think (Do I sound kind of like DR. Phil) There will be times when things completely go wrong, but 9 out of 10 times (or in my limited experience 3 out of 4) time will solve the problem.