My question to all you brewers out there is why is it so difficult to condition my Stouts & Porters. I batch prime them in exactly the way as my other beers (bitters, special bitters, old ales, braggots, barley wines, IPA's, Belgium triples etc) Year after year my Stouts and Porters fail to reach excellent conditioning. My priming is 3.4 g/L white caster sugar dissolved in boiled water, then cooled before use. This works fine for all my other beers. What's so different about my Stouts and Porters? The objective is 1.7 Vol CO2 per bottle. Even if this calculation isn't correct the same priming works across my brews.
Natural bottle conditioning of Stouts & Porters
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fluketamer
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i have noticed that bigger beers especially those with oats barley or mouth feely adjuncts that make them feel look and pour thick often take longer too carb up and benefit from a bigger dose of priming sugar and more time and perhaps warmer temps. . is you stout grain bill much bigger than your other beers. maybe its harder for the co2 to get into a thicker beer. my lagers carb up super quick. but i always thought conditioning and carbonating are two different i assumed carbonating is when you get volumes of co2 into the beer either with gas or naturally with priming sugar. i associate conditioning with aging and marrying flavor over time. my beers carb up in the bottle in three weeks but condition over the next several weeks.
Maybe the primary yeast has worn out? Try adding 1/3 pack of some neutral dry yeast (US-05, Notty, etc) in the bottling bucket when you prime. Gently stir then bottle.
I believe FG affects carbonation time. Back when I used to fully carbonate my stout kegs they routinely took almost twice as long to reach the desired carbonation level versus my standard ales. The 1.107 OG stout typically finished around 1.025 where my ales typically finish around 1.013.
When I switched to 70/30 beer gas and a true stout faucet that problem went away as I only carbonate the stout to 1.2 volumes which isn't much higher than what comes out of the fermentors...
Cheers!
When I switched to 70/30 beer gas and a true stout faucet that problem went away as I only carbonate the stout to 1.2 volumes which isn't much higher than what comes out of the fermentors...
Cheers!
Interesting but why does the higher finishing FG effect natural carbonation time? I'm waiting months to years and still the Stouts are only minimally carbonating during the secondary fermentation. Please could you explain what 70/30 beer gas is?
This the same/similar technique I follow when bottling Champenoises. I'm pretty sure my yeast is still alive when I bottle my Stouts/Porters and I prime with 3.35g/L sucrose (caster sugar) dissolved in boiling water (then cooled) to batch prime. This should give me 1.7Vol CO2 and does with most of my beers. Just Stouts/Porters that don't carbonate up well.
Ok, even two months is beyond "normal" ime, even when I bottled stouts they conditioned in a handful of weeks, maybe five.
I have no idea of the why or how, it's just a consistent observation that higher FG = longer conditioning.
As for the beer gas, 70/30 describes the Nitrogen/CO2 blend...
Cheers!
My stouts are usually pretty high ABV and aged for a few months before conditioning so I use a bottling yeast like CBC-1 and I give them 3 weeks to carb up.
Broken Crow
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When I was still bottling I had noticed that the darker a brew was, the longer it seemed to take to both carb and reach peak taste...same with the timing for force-carbing...I had never considered wether the gravity played a role.
Thanks!
There isn't anything special about bottle-conditioning stouts and porters versus any other beer! But if you want helpful replies, we need some details!
What yeast are you using? What was OG and FG? Is the room where the bottles are conditioning WARM ENOUGH?
After I had one batch of an imperial stout (10% abv, Nottingham yeast) refuse to carbonate, I've switched to ALWAYS using bottling yeast on my high-abv beers. CBC-1 is great, but EC-1118 works just as well in my experience, and is much cheaper.
Also, 1.7 vol CO2 is pretty flat for my personal taste!
Use Lallemand CBC-1 bottling yeast.
Great insurance for bottling big beers and those you wish to age.
Great insurance for bottling big beers and those you wish to age.
Yet totally in normal range for British or British-derived styles.
I feel your pain. Years ago, I did a Spaten Optimator clone that didn’t carbonate. My cure? I switched to kegging! Have not had one fail to carbonate since. 
But seriously, I think the fellows suggesting boosting the yeast are on the right track.
But seriously, I think the fellows suggesting boosting the yeast are on the right track.
I've been mashing my dark beers at 5.5 pH instead of 5.3 and they seem to be drinkable sooner,more homogenized,and smoother. I only bottle big beers and always use CBC-1 and maple syrup,after 3 weeks at 70* or so they go in the cellar for awhile to condition. They're ready in 4-6 weeks,instead of 6-8 months.
