Little carb four weeks after bottling

[ryank020]

I bottled a Belgian Pale Ale four weeks ago and am still having carbonation issues. I bottled in 12 oz bottles and put in 5 oz of dextrose for a 5 gallon batch. I waited three weeks to try it and the beer was pretty flat. Tried it again today (at 4 weeks) and there is slight carbonation but I have very little head in the beer. Any recommendations on what to do?

FYI this is only my second batch. I did nothing different between my first and second batches and my first batch was perfect after three weeks.

 

[duboman]

Don't know what your OG was but bigger beers can take longer to carb up. Also, what temp is the beer siting at? I try to carb above 70F , I find colder temps slow the process down, try finding a warmer spot

 

[Revvy]

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

I've carbed hundreds of gallons of beer, and never had a beer that wasn't carbed, or under carbed or anything of the sort (Except for a batch where I accidently mixed up lactose or Maltodextrine for priming sugar). Some took awhile, (as I said up to six months) but they ALL eventually carbed.

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.

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.

Just make sure they're above 70 and wait. The fact that it's improved a bit, means it is on it's way...

 

[ryank020]

Thanks for the input. I know that the OG was somewhere around 1.08 and it got down to 1.014 when I bottled and bottled around room temperature (72 or so for me). Reevy, I did see on one of your prior posts that beers do eventually carb, but I just thought it was weird that my first beer carbed up so much faster. Had no idea that OG could have an effect on the carbonation.

 

[g-star]

Next time, add a few grams of fresh dry yeast along with your dextrose, and the beer will carb much faster. My 1.095 Belgian was ready in 4 weeks this way. Standard gravity beers will be ready in 7-10 days.

No need to wait 3 months.