Poor carbonation

[mykool]

Hey all, I'm just looking for some tips on carbonating my bottles better, I'm constantly getting flat bottles. Currently I'm using dextrose to carbonat, glass bottles, and storing them in an area that sits aprox 25 Celsius / 77 fahrenheit and I leave them there for a week. Any tips would be helpful and what is the idea temp for carbonation? Thanks all

 

[day_trippr]

What always worked for me was to use 5 ounces (weight) of corn sugar boiled in two cups of water, gently mixed into the beer in my bottling bucket, bottled in 16 ounce glass with one inch of head space, capped with oxygen scavenging caps, inverted twice to activate the caps, then set for two weeks at 70°F followed by two weeks cold conditioning in the fridge at 40°F. Perfect carb every time through hundreds of batches...

Cheers!

 

[cshamilton]

A week can be long enough - but the common wait suggested is 3 weeks to get good even carbonation and then 48 hours in the refrigerator at 4 C / 40 F to make sure all the carbon dioxide is dissolved. This assumes a regular strength beer - higher alcohol content beers can take even longer.

Look for one of Revys replies to a number of similar threads for more info

 

[audger]

a week is no where near long enough.

 

[TyTanium]

Ditto all of the above.

77 is a little warm - the conventional wisdom is 3 weeks at 70 degrees. Taste the difference between 1 and 3 weeks. After 1 week you'll have fizzy beer that tastes harsh - that's the undissolved carbonic acid. Bites your tongue. After 3 weeks + fridge as cshamilton said it'll be dissolved properly and taste like normal beer.

 

[Revvy]

....I leave them there for a week.

This is why you have crappy carbonation....

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.


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."

So that's your tip....more time....