Help me understand carbonation...

[Tazzster]

I am getting mixed results with my beers as far as carbonation goes. I do not really understand what is making them come out different. I was hoping someone could help me.

I am bottling and using the same process. I use a heaping 3/4 cup of corn sugar dissolved in a cup of hot water. I pour that into my transfer bucket and siphon my beer out of my fermentation bucket on top of it. I do this the same for all my beers.

This beer below has awesome carbonation. You need to pour it gently or you will get too much head and overflow the glass.

9.5 lb 2 row
.75 lb Caramel Crystal 60L
.75 lb Caramel Crystal 90L
1 lb Vienna

1oz Cascade - 60
1oz Citra - 15
1oz Citra - 0
1oz Citra - secondary

California Ale Yeast White Labs WLP001

On the other hand this beer you have to glug into the glass to get any head on it. (I also have an Oatmeal Stout that has the same problem)

9lb Maris Otter
1lb Vienna
1lb Crystal/Caramel 10L

1oz Cascade 60 min
1oz Cascade 10 min
1oz Cascade 5 min
1oz Cascade 0 min

Yeast - US West Coast


I don't understand why I am getting such different results. Can anyone explain?

 

[bobbrews]

Simply tossing in a heaped 3/4 cup of corn sugar for every beer you brew is not the optimal route to take.

Style, Volume of Beer, Temperature, and Carb Preference (learned over time) also come into play.

You have to be accurate with the amount you use. Try using a calculator next time.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

 

[mkyl428]

try measuring priming sugar by weight not volume it is much more accurate

 

[danath34]

Yeah, sounds like maybe you're not being precise enough with your weights and volumes.

Using volume for the corn sugar isn't the best. It can be more or less densely packed and thus you get a varying amount of sugar.

Also, are you being careful about measuring your final volumes? Let's say for example the first beer you ended up getting a rather densely packed scoop of corn sugar, combined with maybe that brew had a decent amount of trub in the fermenter and you only ended up with 4.5 gallons in the bottling bucket. It's gonna carbonate high.

Let's say the second beer was a loose pack scoop of corn sugar and not as much trub, maybe 5.5 gallons in the bucket. It's gonna carbonate low.

Use weight for priming sugar, and be careful about your volume measurements for the beer. This should fix your issue.

 

[peterj]

As was said above, volume is not a good way to measure priming sugar. A packed cup is going to have much more sugar than a non packed cup. Also a heaping cup is not even a consistent way to measure volume. And differences in the final volume of beer you end up with will make a difference as well.

As others said, measure priming sugar by weight and scale the amount to how much actual beer you're priming. You can use a calculator like this one: http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ (the "Temperature of Beer" is the highest temp the beer reached after initial fermentation was over), or you can go by about 0.75 - 1 oz (by weight) per gallon of beer. Less carbed styles get closer to 0.75 oz and more carbed closer to 1 oz.

 

[feinbera]

Other things to maybe take into account...

If the beers tend to get more carbonated over time, it could be that the yeast weren't quite done, and are slowly fermenting the last couple gravity points in the wort in addition to the bottling sugar (I still screw this up sometimes a dozen batches in), or that you simply had a slow carbonation, which is more likely with a stronger beer, or if you're keeping the beer somewhere cool.

If the beers get flatter over time, maybe you're not getting a good seal on your caps? I watched my second batch go from great to flat, oxidized nastiness, it sucked, now I steam my caps and really mash 'em on there, haven't had a problem since.

 

[unionrdr]

Or the beer is stored near a cold outside wall where the bottles around the outside edge of the box are less carbed than the ones toward the center. Definitely gotta watch for a stable FG before bottling so it doesn't wind up overcarbed or a bottle bomb.

 

[Wolfbayte]

I don't understand why I am getting such different results. Can anyone explain?

+1 to measure priming sugar by weight not volume
+1 to using a calculator as amount of sugar necessary will vary by beer temp, gravity, and style
+1 to keeping an eye on bottle storage temps. Colder temps slows the yeast down and they may not eat all the priming sugar within the time provided. Give them 3 weeks @ 70*F to be sure.
+1 to maybe you bottled one batch too early. Hydrometer readings are the only way to fly.

I would also ask whether you gently stir the beer after racking to evenly distribute the sugar before you bottle. I know there are die-hard stirrers and die-hard non-stirrers here at HBT, but depending on how you rack, you may or may not be getting even sugar distribution.

All things to consider. Then RDWHAHB.

Wolf