Force carbonating

[Jaša Ratkai]

I'm sorry if somewhere there is the same topic, I just couldn't find it.
So my question is, if I force carbonate after the fermentation is over, that means that the beer is already drinkable and done? Or should still sit some time? And in that case is it really worth to force carbonate if it still has to sit some time?

 

[mongoose33]

Different beers benefit from different amounts of time spent conditioning.

Whether the beer is "drinkable" after force carbing depends on what you define as "drinkable."

Beer that is drunk too soon is often described as "green," meaning there's a sharpness of flavor that is not quite there. It just needs to sit and condition. I had a SMASH once that at two weeks was disappointing. At 3 weeks, though, it had smoothed out and became a hit.

Your best bet? Force carb it, then try it. Then let it sit another week, and try it. Then another week, same thing.

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

Yeah, but if I wait for 2 weeks it's the same if I just let it carbonate in the bottles right?

 

[mongoose33]

Yeah, but if I wait for 2 weeks it's the same if I just let it carbonate in the bottles right?

As far as carbonation goes, 2-3 weeks in the bottle, if you add priming sugar, should get you to the same place.

A couple reasons why I went to kegging: you can get beer ready fast, and sometimes it is ready, rather than waiting for the 2-3 weeks for the bottle conditioning to finish. If you keg beer at 2 weeks, you've got drinkable beer the next day. It may or may not need to condition further. If you bottle at 2 weeks, you still have another 2-3 weeks to wait.

The other advantage, and I consider this more important, is that I never have bottle dregs when I keg. I always do w/ bottle conditioning. I hate decanting a bottle of beer to avoid the dregs, and if I give beer away to friends, they typically just dump it in a glass, which isn't going to do the beer any favors.

YMMV.

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

Thanks for anwser. Probably gonna start kegging soon. I noticed some brewers saying that you can carbonate IPA beer and drink it quite fast, unlike some belgian beers which need higher carbonation. Is that true? Cause I'm mainly making IPA style of beer since it's my favorite.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

At a high level, 4% to 5% ABV wheat beers are ready to drink as soon as they have been carbonated. Higher alcohol beers will take longer.