How do I know when my beer is carbonated enough?

[Skillafizer]

Hey all,

This may be a stupid question but I'm prone to asking those. I am in the process of brewing my very first homebrew, a starter kit from Craftabrew.com, an American Pale Ale. I bought a bottling bucket since it seems better than bottling straight from the carboy, but I still have about 9 days left according to the instructions before I bottle.

My question is, how do I know when the beer is carbonated enough, and how do I keep it from getting too carbonated after bottling it? I've read horror stories of bottle bombs but I'm not sure on the process of how to avoid them (heard of cold-crashing but not sure how it works) and how to carbonate the beer without it getting to the point of blowing my fingers off.

If anyone wants to add an explanation of how cold crashing works and why to do it, that'd be great too since that would kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks in advance!

 

[eadavis80]

Bottle bombs occur when people before fermentation is complete. Only a gravity reading with a hydrometer or refractometer can tell you that - airlocks are not valid fermentation reading devices. When your gravity does not move over the course of 2-3 days your beer is done fermenting. However, MOST feel it's best to wait another week after final gravity (FG) is reached before bottling to allow the yeast to finish up the beer. Cold crashing is simply putting your beer in a fridge or some other device to lower its temperature. This will help the beer clear. Generally, you want to wait AT LEAST two weeks after you bottle and allow your bottles to sit at room temp (around 70) before trying one.

 

[Singletrack]

Probably best to throw away all kit instructions.

The yeast will eat all the priming sugar you add at bottling time. If you add the right amount, then you just need to wait 2 to 3 weeks for carbing, then try one to see if it is ready. If you add too much priming sugar, your world will explode. If you add too little, you will drink flat beer and do better next time.

Cold crashing is nearly unrelated to this topic.

Edit: eadavis80 has good info above. Bottle bombs usually are not the result of adding too much sugar, but rather bottling too soon.

 

[Takuie]

A good priming calculator will help. On the rare occasion I do bottle condition I use this one from brewersfriend.com

Never had under or over carbed bottles when using this calculator.

 

[Kent88]

For beginners I think priming tabs &/or fizz drops are a good investment. A lot of people say that it makes beer too fizzy, but I think they're a good way to take some stress out of the brewing process. You're already doing all the work of boiling, sanitizing, keeping track of temperatures, hop additions, and all that, but it could all be ruined by bottle bombs.

I listened to a show on The Brewing Network, and one of the guys there said he actually does go by airlock activity. When the airlock stops he waits a few days and bottles. Probably not something that I'd recommend for beginners, but if you know you made a low gravity beer and a fairly large yeast starter and airlock activity stops on day 7, it is probably a good bet that you can bottle on day 10, if you must.

@Skillafizer I'd recommend you wait the full 14 days, and if you must use a bottling bucket, I think that you make up a sugar solution of about 3/4 cup (not pounds!) and some water (about a pint or so, depending on home much beer you're bottling). 2 weeks is minimum for carbonating, I usually try one around then and immediately regret it because it is so flat, and I wait another week for the second. I don't know if the science supports it, but after 3 weeks I put whatever I want to drink in the fridge a few days before I open one up because I think more CO2 will dissolve at lower temps.

Remember, you don't want to add any oxygen at bottling, either. if you do you'll get some bad off flavors.

Oh, and cold crashing is just something people do to improve the clarity of their beer. I don't worry about the cosmetic portion much myself, but I suppose I'd do that if I was entering a contest or serving it at a party.

 

[C-Rider]

Probably best to throw away all kit instructions.

Cold crashing is nearly unrelated to this topic.

Edit: eadavis80 has good info above. Bottle bombs usually are not the result of adding too much sugar, but rather bottling too soon.

I agree w/the first statement. Get a hydrometer and when you get no change in SG over 2 or 3 days it's done and you can either Cold Crash to help clear or bottle.

Cold Crashing is part of the carbonation equation and I learned the hard way. If you cold crash and bottle cold you need LESS SUGAR than if the bottling temp of the beer is say 70.

Oh yea, 3 weeks at 70 after bottling and you beer should be fully carbed.
If you have beersmith you can imput the beer temp at bottling time and it will tell you how much sugar to add.

I didn't change that number and the last 3 batches I cold crashed were all gushers.

 

[eadavis80]

However, I will admit I've had beers that were still disappointingly flat after 3 weeks @ 70, but they EVENTUALLY came around. My current NB Extra Pale is an example. It took about 5-6 weeks to get fully carbonated. Not really sure why - it was at the same temp and had the same amount of priming sugar as every other beer. NB has a nice priming sugar calculator here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[Rhumbline]

I'll echo the cautions about bottling too early. I simple method I use to monitor carbonation is to bottle one in a plastic bottle.

As carbonation builds, the bottle will become hard and you'll have a good indication of the level of carbonation when you can't easily squeeze the bottle.

happy brewing!

 

[Skillafizer]

Remember, you don't want to add any oxygen at bottling, either. if you do you'll get some bad off flavors.

Thanks for the pointers, guys. @Kent88, how do I avoid adding oxygen? Again, I've never done this before so I'm not sure what to expect. Should I have gotten a lid for my bottling bucket or something or do you just mean don't aerate/shake up the beer while bottling?

I'm not really expecting this beer to turn out all that awesomely which is why I'd like to use it as practice for the full range of basic brewing (meaning cold crashing and using a bottling bucket as well), otherwise I wouldn't be trying to do so much with my first batch. The kit was a little older than I should've let it get before trying it, so it's more of a practice for me than a legitimate attempt to make great beer.

 

[Kent88]

Mostly don't shake it up or splash the beer around. I probably made it sound worse than what it was, I remember when I bottled with the Mr. Beer system when the beer was flowing out the spigot to the bottom of the bottle or surface of the beer with no tubing or anything and that turned out as ok as I think anyone expects those kits to.

No need to make any apologies, we've all been there when we've brewed our own first batch or two. Lots of uncertainty, but everything usually turns out alright. You apparently care enough that you probably followed directions, so everything will be fine.

 

[justenoughforme]

it's more of a practice for me than a legitimate attempt to make great beer.

. . . if you're anything like me, no matter if there's a "perceptable off flavor" or a "subtle diminishing of hops" ... you're still going to love it. it's YOUR beer that YOU made, end of story.

what we do here is pretty amazing.

 

[Skillafizer]

True that, @justenoughforme. I'm thinking I'll like it even if it tastes like Bud (that might be a stretch though).

 

[Brauer]

Congrats on your first beer. Take some time and watch some videos on YouTube. It helps having a visual aid. That way you get to see how different people do things and find what works best for you.

 

[mywifehatesmybeer]

If you add too much priming sugar, your world will explode.

Never had a bottle bomb, but that's EXACTLY how I imagine it would happen for me. Keeps me in check.

 

[plan_ahea]

Cold Crashing is part of the carbonation equation and I learned the hard way. If you cold crash and bottle cold you need LESS SUGAR than if the bottling temp of the beer is say 70.

Temperature affects how much sugar is required to carbonate your beer, but it's the highest temperature the beer reached after fermentaion, not the current temperature of the beer. This is because the solubility of CO2 is temperature dependant. As the temperature of your beer increases, CO2 comes out of solution, meaning that more priming sugar is required to reach your desired carbonation level. However, when your beer decreases temperature (cold crashing) CO2 doesn't dissolve back into the beer, so you don't need to add less priming sugar if the beer is cold.

 

[C-Rider]

Temperature affects how much sugar is required to carbonate your beer, but it's the highest temperature the beer reached after fermentaion, not the current temperature of the beer. This is because the solubility of CO2 is temperature dependant. As the temperature of your beer increases, CO2 comes out of solution, meaning that more priming sugar is required to reach your desired carbonation level. However, when your beer decreases temperature (cold crashing) CO2 doesn't dissolve back into the beer, so you don't need to add less priming sugar if the beer is cold.

Well how come BeerSmith2 tells me less sugar if my beer is colder?

 

[Singletrack]

The beer will absorb more "residual" CO2 during fermentation at a cooler temperature, so you need less priming sugar to complete carbonation. However, if you cold crash after fermentation is complete, there may be little available CO2 to be absorbed. In this case, it is better to use the highest fermentation temperature in your carbonation calculator, which results in more priming sugar.

You really shouldn't cold crash during fermentation. You want to finish the fermentation warmer, so waiting to cold crash and using the highest temperature seems like the best advice for this forum. That's why I said earlier that cold crashing is nearly unrelated to carbonation level.

C-Rider, You said you learned the opposite the hard way. Did your beer somehow absorb a lot of CO2 during cold crashing? Did you have a very large head space filled with CO2? I'm interested to know how this happened, since I am now lagering some beers at 30 F prior to bottling.

 

[brewcat]

My recommendation would be not to mess with cold crashing. Defiantly use a priming sugar calculator. Depending on how many gallons and temp will determine your amount.

For 5 gallons, I'd use 4.0 oz - 4.5 oz of corn sugar mixed with 2 cups water. Boil that for 5-10 minutes. Let cool a little bit, dump in sanitized bottling bucket. Then start transferring beer from carboy with sanitized siphon and racking cane. During transfer slowly stir with racking cane to mix sugar and beer evenly. Always keep the racking cane under the beer and don't splash/agitate when mixing.

That should give you a perfectly carbed beer in three weeks or so. But certainly drinkable in a couple.

 

[passedpawn]

My recommendation would be not to mess with cold crashing. Defiantly use a priming sugar calculator. Depending on how many gallons and temp will determine your amount.

For 5 gallons, I'd use 4.0 oz - 4.5 oz of corn sugar mixed with 2 cups water. Boil that for 5-10 minutes. Let cool a little bit, dump in sanitized bottling bucket. Then start transferring beer from carboy with sanitized siphon and racking cane. During transfer slowly stir with racking cane to mix sugar and beer evenly. Always keep the racking cane under the beer and don't splash/agitate when mixing.

That should give you a perfectly carbed beer in three weeks or so. But certainly drinkable in a couple.

Table sugar works EXACTLY as well as corn sugar. There will be no difference in flavor or carbonation if you use table sugar (sucrose) in place of corn sugar (dextrose). The only thing to consider is that you should use 10% less table sugar, by weight, than corn sugar. The reason for this is that corn sugar is about 9% water, and table sugar has none.

Otherwise, it's exactly how I used to add priming sugar before I bottled.

 

[Skillafizer]

Thanks guys. So say after one more week in the carboy (to make it 14 days of fermenting), would it work out alright if I cold crash the beer for 2-3 days to get rid of a little bit more of the floating hazy stuff (I know, really technical) before transferring it to the bottling bucket? Also, my kit's instructions say to leave the beer out again for another 24 hours after removing it from the cold crash environment before bottling. Is that accurate or should I transfer the beer to the bottling bucket while the carboy is still in the fridge? Someone mentioned their hesitance to take kit instructions seriously so I wasn't sure.

 

[emclinux]

So I recently did my first fill 5gal batch. I found that fermentation completed to FG after 7 days. I did a taste of it and it was almost water tasting. I let it go for a week and came back to bottle. The taste at that time started to come out and it was beer tasting. Following the guides in How To Brew I used 2/3 cup of table sugar in 2 cups of water and bottled. Waited a week to carb and had me a beer. I only put what I was going to drink in the fridge and left the rest in the closet. I'm nearing the end of my beer and it's been 3 weeks in bottle and they are the best ones yet. What I have learned is to be patient with it and let it go as much as you can as hard as that is on the first brews. If you get thirsty run to the store and get you some craft beer and try different styles so you can find your next brew day style.

 

[C-Rider]

C-Rider, You said you learned the opposite the hard way. Did your beer somehow absorb a lot of CO2 during cold crashing? Did you have a very large head space filled with CO2? I'm interested to know how this happened, since I am now lagering some beers at 30 F prior to bottling.

I fermented at 65* for at least 4 weeks. Cold crashed for a week and then brought the 35* beer into the house to bottle. Was about 45* when I added the bottling sugar using the amt BS sugjested (temp in BS set for about 70*).

Three weeks at 70* gave me gushers in all 3 six packs. This happend to the last 3 brews that were cold crashed..

Next week I cold crash an IPA that has fermented 4 weeks and 2 days ago dry hopped. I will change the BS temp to what ever the beer is wen I bottle.

Thanks for your interest.

 

[Ryat66]

I fermented at 65* for at least 4 weeks. Cold crashed for a week and then brought the 35* beer into the house to bottle. Was about 45* when I added the bottling sugar using the amt BS sugjested (temp in BS set for about 70*).

Three weeks at 70* gave me gushers in all 3 six packs. This happend to the last 3 brews that were cold crashed..

Next week I cold crash an IPA that has fermented 4 weeks and 2 days ago dry hopped. I will change the BS temp to what ever the beer is wen I bottle.

Thanks for your interest.

I was directed to this thread for exactly the same issue.

I have been through the same thing on the last 2 brews of a pale ale. I have a suspicion that my process is causing some type of anomaly for the amount of CO2 the calculator is expecting in the beer. Here's my process for this pale ale in question:

-primary for 3-4 days at 65F then, raise up to 70F to finish out
-hold 70F for 10-14 days
-crash to 35F and fine w/ gelatin for 4 days
-rack off primary to secondary for dry hop at 70F for 5 days
-crash to 35F for 4-5 days to drop any dry hop material
-warm to 60F-70F for bottling (never really pay attention to this temp because in theory it shouldn't matter since 70F is the highest temp the beer reached during the process)

For both of these batches I targeted 2.3 volumes (113 grams for 4.9 gallons actually packaged) but have ended up with some rather frothy brews. In both instances I have checked gravity and have found it to be the same as my recorded gravity so, I think we can rule out infection.

Any ideas here or is it just trial and error until I find the amount of priming sugar that gives me what I'm looking for?

 

[C-Rider]

I was directed to this thread for exactly the same issue.

I have been through the same thing on the last 2 brews of a pale ale. I have a suspicion that my process is causing some type of anomaly for the amount of CO2 the calculator is expecting in the beer. Here's my process for this pale ale in question:

-primary for 3-4 days at 65F then, raise up to 70F to finish out
-hold 70F for 10-14 days
-crash to 35F and fine w/ gelatin for 4 days
-rack off primary to secondary for dry hop at 70F for 5 days
-crash to 35F for 4-5 days to drop any dry hop material
-warm to 60F-70F for bottling (never really pay attention to this temp because in theory it shouldn't matter since 70F is the highest temp the beer reached during the process)

For both of these batches I targeted 2.3 volumes (113 grams for 4.9 gallons actually packaged) but have ended up with some rather frothy brews. In both instances I have checked gravity and have found it to be the same as my recorded gravity so, I think we can rule out infection.

Any ideas here or is it just trial and error until I find the amount of priming sugar that gives me what I'm looking for?

Here are some figures from BS2 for 1.75 gallons at bottling time.:
Default bottling temp....................1.29 oz Table Sugar
BS set to 65*F---------------------1.22 oz
BS set to 40*F.............................0.74 oz

Could explaine the gusyer...Whatcha think?

 

[Singletrack]

Any ideas here or is it just trial and error until I find the amount of priming sugar that gives me what I'm looking for?

No ideas here, but apparently that won't stop my reply.

By my calcs, you are priming with corn sugar. Probably it is glucose monohydrate, and you are using a calculator that is based on pure glucose. This doesn't help explain anything, because if you used the correct calculator you would use about 10% more priming sugar, causing a bigger problem.

Your temperature and racking gyrations seem unwarranted. Why not just dry hop in the primary with one cold crash? This doesn't help either, since you are more likely to absorb excess CO2 from primary than secondary.

To help with your actual issue, you could skip the cold crash, eliminating that variable completely. You can cold crash in the bottle.

In my experience, you should calculate residual CO2 using 70 F, as you did. Maybe the issue is completely unrelated to cold crashing, though I can't think what that might be.

 

[Skillafizer]

Related to the topic of bottle carbing, do you guys think these Grolsch-style swing tops would actually work for beer? I picked up the two on the right from Meijer, the one on the left and the pseudo-carboy from TJMaxx. The Meijer bottles say they handle carbonated beverages up to 4 atmospheres. I have no idea about the science of carbing so I don't know the pressure that builts up from carbonation for bottling beer. Will these bottles be sufficient for use with my home brews?

View attachment 1435953507630.jpg

 

[jtratcliff]

The flip tops should be ok, but they are clear.... Asking for skunked hops if you don't keep 'em in the dark