Poor carbonation

[naa10104]

Hello,
Have done three batches now with fine carbonation, not on my most recent. Did a 5 gal. batch of Amber Ale and actually had the best fermentation I have ever done. OG was 1.060/ FG was 1.014 which was confirmed with readings two days apart. Fermented for 16 days and then bottled/conditioned for two weeks. Opened two bottles last night after chilling all day. First bottle completely flat, second only app. 20% carbonated. I used 5oz.'s of corn sugar for the bottle priming as I have done before. Only thing I did differently this time is I could not get any siphon to work to move from 6 gal Carboy to bottling bucket. (Have that figured out now) I very slowly poured wort from Carboy thru large funnel with fine screen into bottling bucket. Almost all of the Trubb stayed in Carboy and the finished product had very little sediment in it. I know this was not an ideal way to move the wort to the bottling bucket. Could this have caused poor or no carbonation ? Maybe moving it this way introduced too much oxygen. Beer tastes fine otherwise. Is there anything I can do at this point to correct this ? Open all bottles and move to Keg to carbonate ? No idea on how I would do that. Also, this is the higest ABV I have nade to date. My calculations show somewhere around 6.3 %. Is is possible that it may just take longer ot carbonate dut to the higher ABV ?

Would it be beneficial to move the beer from refrigerator back to room temp. of app. 68 degrees for a few more weeks or should I leave what is in the fridge for now ? Half of the batch has not been in refrigerated yet. Appreciate any advice/opinions .... thanks !

 

[Coastalbrew]

Hello,
Have done three batches now with fine carbonation, not on my most recent. Did a 5 gal. batch of Amber Ale and actually had the best fermentation I have ever done. OG was 1.060/ FG was 1.014 which was confirmed with readings two days apart. Fermented for 16 days and then bottled/conditioned for two weeks. Opened two bottles last night after chilling all day. First bottle completely flat, second only app. 20% carbonated. I used 5oz.'s of corn sugar for the bottle priming as I have done before. Only thing I did differently this time is I could not get any siphon to work to move from 6 gal Carboy to bottling bucket. (Have that figured out now) I very slowly poured wort from Carboy thru large funnel with fine screen into bottling bucket. Almost all of the Trubb stayed in Carboy and the finished product had very little sediment in it. I know this was not an ideal way to move the wort to the bottling bucket. Could this have caused poor or no carbonation ? Maybe moving it this way introduced too much oxygen. Beer tastes fine otherwise. Is there anything I can do at this point to correct this ? Open all bottles and move to Keg to carbonate ? No idea on how I would do that. Also, this is the higest ABV I have nade to date. My calculations show somewhere around 6.3 %. Is is possible that it may just take longer ot carbonate dut to the higher ABV ? Appreciate any advice/opinions .... thanks !

I'd say give it more time. What yeast did you use? Did you stir the priming sugar into the beer before bottling? Did you cold crash the beer? I can't see any reason that pouring the beer would effect the carbonation unless the priming sugar didn't get adequately mixed. Let the beer sit at room temp and try one in a week and see if it's any different. Good luck!

 

[naa10104]

Hello,

Thanks for your comments. Used Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast, 11.5 gms. I did use 5 oz.'s of priming sugar and mixed in with the Wort before bottling. Not sure what cold crash means exactly, but I left the beer bottled and out a room temp of app. 68 degrees for two weeks and then put half of the bottles in the fridge for 8 hours before trying two fo the bottles. I did stir the sugar into the wort before bottling. Should I take the beer in the fridge out and let it come to room temp for a few weeks ?

 

[rsquared]

When your beer is done fermenting, there is still some amount of CO2 left in the beer. In fact, there's about enough to account for around 1/3 of the amount of CO2 you want in your bottles when you're done. Pouring the beer through a funnel would likely have been enough to knock most of that that CO2 out, and the mesh filter on the funnel would have just made that much more efficient.

In other words, instead of a beer carbonated to around 2.5 volumes, you're probably looking at closer to 1.7ish, which is down into the British Cask Ale range.

 

[naa10104]

Interesting, so anything else I can do at this point ? I took the beer that I placed in the fridge yesterday at app. 1000 AM out and am going to leave it at app. 68 degrees for a week or so and see if that improves the carbonation. The other 12 beers that I never put in the fridge I will leave out for another week and then chill. Hopefully the carbonation will improve. Any suggestions/information would be appreciated ! Thanks

 

[rsquared]

2 weeks was a little early to chill and stop carbonation, so letting them sit out another week or two is probably best. I think you're still going to be a fair bit under carbonated at that point, but it should be a little better than it is now. As you guessed in your first post though, these beers probably got an extra dose of oxygen as well, so the sooner you chill and drink them, the less oxidation off flavors you will have...

The only real way to fix it at this point would involve opening all the bottles and adding a little more sugar (carefully weighed out per bottle) and recapping them. Getting the dosing right and doing it in a way that doesn't cause more problem (e.g. beer + granulated sugar = coke + mentos) is not going to be simple though, so I'd probably just live with it...

 

[naa10104]

Sounds good and thanks for your time !!!

 

[ncbrewer]

If considering adding more sugar, I would also be concerned about possible bottle bombs. There are other possible reasons for the low carbonation, and you won't know just how much of the CO2 was lost during the transfer. If your extra sugar addition is too much, kablam.

 

[naa10104]

Hello,

Think I will leave it be for now and see how they are in a week. I am fairly sure that the issue was with how I transferred the beer to the bottling bucket. The beer looks good and tasted good but would of course be much better if it was better carbonated. Thanks all for the input.

 

[naa10104]

I got to go there ... if in another week ot two the carbonation does not improve does anyone have a recommendation for a safe amount of sugar to introduce to each bottle ? And what type, ie. Honey, table sugar etc. Not saying I would do it but definltely curious. Could I keg it or use a "soda stream" or similar product ? Really want to taste this Ale with the proper carbonation. Thanks again !

 

[naa10104]

Hello,

Little more information, I moved all the beer I had refrigerated back out to room temp. app. 68-69 degrees after a couple of days. So all beer was at room temp for 4 weeks. I put two beer back in the fridge for app. 18 hours ... one of the never cooled beers and one of the 2 day cooled beers. I tried one of the never cooled last night and it was only app. 10 % carbonated. I then tried one of the beers that spent two days in the fridge originally. It was carbonated to an acceptable level ? Now I am completely confused. Any ideas ? Does chilling cause/improve carbonation ? Thanks

 

[Bill9000]

I'm bottle conditioning my first home brew and tried one a couple nights ago after 11 days of bottle conditioning. I was satisfied with the taste but disappointed with the carbonation. Hoping a couple more weeks will provide more carbonation.

 

[RolandD]

I'm no expert and have little experience, but it sounds like your priming sugar didn't get distributed evenly. I'd store all of them in the fridge just in case a few bottles got an extra dose and are potential bottle bombs.

There is no good way to fix them. I'd just drink them and experience the various levels of carbonation.

 

[Bill9000]

I'm bottle conditioning my first home brew and tried one a couple nights ago after 11 days of bottle conditioning. I was satisfied with the taste but disappointed with the carbonation. Hoping a couple more weeks will provide more carbonation.

Just following up on my original post - after 3 - 4 weeks total bottle conditioning, my beer is properly and consistently carbonated, tasty, and refreshing!

 

[Nokie]

Any time I’ve bottle conditioned I always go at least 4 weeks. 6 is usually better.
I figure 4 to carbonate and 2 for conditioning.
put a bottle in each week and try it. Keep notes and you’ll see where it works best for you

 

[Velnerj]

Hello,

Little more information, I moved all the beer I had refrigerated back out to room temp. app. 68-69 degrees after a couple of days. So all beer was at room temp for 4 weeks. I put two beer back in the fridge for app. 18 hours ... one of the never cooled beers and one of the 2 day cooled beers. I tried one of the never cooled last night and it was only app. 10 % carbonated. I then tried one of the beers that spent two days in the fridge originally. It was carbonated to an acceptable level ? Now I am completely confused. Any ideas ? Does chilling cause/improve carbonation ? Thanks

Cold definitely affects carbonation. The cooler the liquid the more Co2 it can absorb.

I know I'm late to this party but I hope your beer turned out well in the end.

One ingredient needed in all beer is patience. Sounds to me that your beer will carbonate given enough time.

 

[jseyfert3]

Could I keg it or use a "soda stream" or similar product ?

Of course you could keg. That doesn't require any priming sugar as it is force carbing, where CO2 is dissolved into the beer via pressure from a CO2 tank instead of priming sugar. Now getting beer from a bunch of bottles into a keg without adding loads of oxygen is probably not easily done.

 

[ncbrewer]

Now getting beer from a bunch of bottles into a keg without adding loads of oxygen is probably not easily done.

+1