Need help with post-bottling

[Irish620]

Gentlemen,

I bottled the BB imperial IPA on 6-1-11. It has been sitting in my basement ,at about 65 degrees, for about a month.
I refrigerated a bottle last night and sampled it today. It's carbonation was pretty weak and it still needs time. My first batch, the BB Belgian,
Didn't carb up that great either. Should I move the batch to a warmer place ? Something I'm doing wrong ? Need more bubbles, it's an IPA !

Also, I know this is a big beer, but is there a rule of thumb on how long a beer should sit, at 65 degrees-ish, before it makes it's way into the refrigerator ?

Thanks for your wisdom.

 

[birvine]

You might want to try a slightly warmer room.

B

 

[_JP_]

Regarding the IPA - basically, give it more time in the fridge. Can't help you on the Belgian.

What's happening in the bottle is this:

At "room temp" (65°-75°F), yeast eats the priming sugar, CO2 pressure builds up in the head space under the cap. Only a little CO2 is diffused into the beer, due to temp.

At fridge temps, as the liquid cools, it will absorb the CO2 from the head space. It'll take a few days though.

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

 

[Revvy]

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.

If you just arbitrarily put them in the cold at three weeks, without making sure they were carbed to begin with, then you've prevented them from carbing further.

Yeast go to sleep in the cold, they don't carb your beer. SO of coulrse you beer is stuck uncarbed right where you put them into the fridge.

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."