Inconsistant Carbonation

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cookmysock

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Just opened a few bottles of the latest all grain batch. First bottle was great - nicely carbonated, good taste. Second bottle was almost flat! Next bottle was also flat then the one after that fine. Recipe was Maris Otter base with about 7% wheat in the grain bill.

I know for sure that the priming sugar was put in the bottle. Temperature is quite consistant as well - about 23 deg C (73 F since I have failed in convincing the US to convert to metric :D)

Beer has been in the bottle for 2 weeks.

Any ideas why the inconsistancy?
 
Did you put the sugar directly into the bottle, or did you add it to a bottling bucket in bulk? If it went directly into the bottle, how did you measure? If it went into a bottling bucket, how did you mix?

Also, two weeks can be a bit premature. It's possible that the rest will just take another week or two to catch up. As you bottle, the bottles filled from more "settled" parts of the fermentor will often have more yeast, leading to quicker carbing (and more sediment). Are the ones low on carbonation completely flat, or just very low?
 
Beer has been in the bottle for 2 weeks.

This is your entire problem in a nutshell. Whenever someone says they have inconsistant carbonation it's really that you don't have a carbonation problem, you just have a patience one.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out. You have green beer.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)

You may have just caught the beers as they were individually starting to pop, and happened to have grabbed the first ones that actually did carb, and assumed the rest already did, when they hadn't yet.

Inconsistant carbonation, usually simply means that they are not ready yet. If you had opened them a week later, or even two, you never would have noticed. Each one is it's own little microcosm, and although generally the should come up at the same time, it's not an automatic switch, and they all pop on.

A tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Bottom line, it's not that the sugar's not mixed, it's just that they all haven't come up to full carb yet....Three weeks is not the magic number for finality, it's the minimum time it takes....

Pull them out of the fridge, give them a little shake to kick the yeast up, and make sure they're above 70 for a couple more weeks.
 
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