Faster Bottle Conditioning

[alcibiades]

As I sit here, marinating in my hangover (aristocrat tequila? what was I thinking?), I wondered:

Would lightly shaking my carb conditioning bottles speed up the process? My beers usually only take a week to carb, but another week to clean up diacetyl, would shaking the bottle allow the yeast to clean up faster?

 

[Got Trub?]

Not appreciably - and then you would have all the yeast in suspension when you go to drink them instead of a nice little cake on the bottom that you can decant off of. Besides you want them to have time to condition your beer as well as carbonate. Rule #1 of brewing: Don't rush your beer. Rule # 2: See rule #1.

GT

 

[cheezydemon3]

Patience is worth more than brewing experience.

 

[Malticulous]

You can get them to carb faster at 80F. If your yeast is healthy it will only take three or four days to eat the sugar up. Depending on the the yeast they could be ready to drink in less than a week. I add fresh yeast to the bottling bucket for beers over a month old or if I cold crashed them. It works for me. This three week rule is bogus--but my kegs need three weeks to taste as good as my bottles do at one week. Go figure?

 

[johnbrain]

I have guests coming and just want to open one or two bottles max of week old Oatmeal Stout. My house stays around 68-70 and I'm happy to have them condition at that temp, but they're eager to taste my beer.

Would keeping a couple bottles in my car, which is typically warmer, speed things up a little without too many off-flavor profiles setting in?

 

[homebrewbeliever]

I bottled my first stout about a month ago and its only barely carbonated. I used a CO2 calculation chart that said to only add about 3.7 oz of corn sugar to my 5 gallon batch to get the carbonation level I desired. For my first beer, a brown ale, I used 5 oz of corn sugar and it was totally carbonated in 2 weeks. Do lower carbonated beers take longer to reach optimal carbonation levels? I am sure that the beer IS carbonating, its just taking a bit longer (I checked it two weeks ago and it is a bit more carbonated now than it was then)... any ideas?

 

[duboman]

The bigger the beer the longer they take and yes if you want to speed things up carbonation wise warmer is better but not much warmer than 70.

It's not just the carbonation though that you are looking for. The beer really needs the conditioning time as well and also some time in the fridge to saturate the beer with the CO2.

I can generally get my beer to carb up in 1-2 weeks at 70 and yes I do sample but in reality they really don't taste the way the are supposed to for 3-4 weeks.

Your guests will no doubt like your beer but I assure you they will like it more when thy come back in a few more weeks!

 

[homebrewbeliever]

The bigger the beer the longer they take and yes if you want to speed things up carbonation wise warmer is better but not much warmer than 70.

It's not just the carbonation though that you are looking for. The beer really needs the conditioning time as well and also some time in the fridge to saturate the beer with the CO2.

I can generally get my beer to carb up in 1-2 weeks at 70 and yes I do sample but in reality they really don't taste the way the are supposed to for 3-4 weeks.

Your guests will no doubt like your beer but I assure you they will like it more when thy come back in a few more weeks!

Thanks! Since it just started getting warmer here and the house has finally gotten above 63 degrees (its been 75 in here the past few days), I am hoping that two more weeks should have it carbonated and then I can stick it downstairs in the basement to condition. What do you mean though when you say to stick it in the fridge to saturate the beer with CO2? Do you mean to do that once its all carbonated to your desired level? And, how long should I leave it in the fridge?

 

[Cromwell]

Yes, put it in the fridge after it's carbed. The yeast don't produce CO2 so well at low temps, but the CO2 they produce doesn't stay in solution so well until it's cold. Go figure.
Also, if you have any chill haze at all, it'll settle out if you leave it in the fridge a while.

My question is: I have a CAP that I lagered for a month, so the yeast is pretty well flocculated out, and the beer is totally clear in the bottles, with only a very thin layer of sediment (I assume yeast) at the bottom of each bottle. I didn't add any yeast when I bottled, so.... It'll still carb right? As long as the beer isn't filtered, there's still plenty of yeast even in a lager to carb the beer? It'll just take a little longer?

 

[becon776]

Bump

 

[mblanks2]

My question is: I have a CAP that I lagered for a month, so the yeast is pretty well flocculated out, and the beer is totally clear in the bottles, with only a very thin layer of sediment (I assume yeast) at the bottom of each bottle. I didn't add any yeast when I bottled, so.... It'll still carb right? As long as the beer isn't filtered, there's still plenty of yeast even in a lager to carb the beer? It'll just take a little longer?

I assume this is the reason for the "Bump".
There should be enough yeast in the beer to properly carb and yes it can take a little longer. I would typically add yeast to my bottling bucket (Nottingham) at 3 - 4 grams rehydrated per 5 gallons when I mixed in the priming sugar. Now I keg so I'm currently PATIENTLY waiting on my first AG force carbonated lager.

 

[MikeInMKE]

When I bottle, I fill one 16 ounce plastic soda bottle (A&W root beer bottles because they're dark brown) along with all the glass bottles. I keep that one bottle with the 2+ cases of glass bottles.

You can track the yeast's CO2 generating progress by how stiff the bottle gets.

You can also track the CO2's absorption into the beer as it's chilling in the refrigerator by how soft the bottle gets.