Porter -stouts without carbonation?

[mattbeer]

Please advise.... I've been brewing for about a year and my BIG/Double stouts and porters have been lacking carbonation. Do I need to add extra sugar ? All of my brews have been excellent, except for these styles. The only commonality is honey at the last 5mins of brewing. Please assist....

 

[JimRausch]

More info. please.
ie. it sounds like you're not adding any priming sugar?

 

[freisste]

What yeast are you using? If these are really big beers, you may have reached their ABV limit and they just can't do any more.

 

[Stauffbier]

How long do you let them carbonate?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

How long do you let them carbonate?

And at what temps.

 

[gr8shandini]

I'm thinking "BIG" might be your problem. The more alcohol you have, the harder it is to get the yeasties to go back to work. I don't usually venture into these realms, so I'm not the best source, but I understand that a lot of folks need several months to carbonate their RISes and the like.

If you're impatient, I could recommend two things:

1. Get a kegging system. You could force carbonate in a matter of minutes if you like. Or . . .

2. Get a beer engine. Cask ales are meant to be served at roughly 1 volume of CO2, which is about where you're at in the fermenter. Plus, a stout on the hand pump with a sparkler tip attached is a thing of beauty. It's what Guinness et. al. try to simulate with the nitro system.

 

[mattbeer]

I apologize for the vagueness. I am using WYEAST 1056 with a yeast starter plate. The fermentation begins within 24 hours. I use a blow off line because it gets messy. I let it sit in a secondary for an additional 3-4 weeks after fermentation is over. I use the recommended amount of finishing sugar, but I barely get any carbonation.

My double IPA's come out excellent, but stouts and porters don't have carbonation. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[cshamilton]

I apologize for the vagueness. I am using WYEAST 1056 with a yeast starter plate. The fermentation begins within 24 hours. I use a blow off line because it gets messy. I let it sit in a secondary for an additional 3-4 weeks after fermentation is over. I use the recommended amount of finishing sugar, but I barely get any carbonation.

My double IPA's come out excellent, but stouts and porters don't have carbonation. Any suggestions would be helpful.

What is the ABV of each? What type and how much sugar are you adding for each style?

 

[Revvy]

But you STILL didn't tell us how long you're letting them sit in the bottles, and at what temp, before you try them. I've found that there are rarely any carbonation problems, only patience ones.

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. Beers stored cooler than 70, 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."

Carbing is foolproof. You ad the right amount of sugar, leave it at the right temp, and it will carb.

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.or, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

 

[mattbeer]

Thanks so much. The bottles live in my basement which is generally in the 60's. I'll bring a bunch upstairs where it's warmer.

Thanks again.

 

[Stauffbier]

To add to what Revvy said, I picked up a trick over time that seemed to help speed up the process. When you let your beer sit in the fermenter as long as 3-4 weeks it will get extremely clear. In that process a very large amount of the yeast has dropped out, and there is a much smaller population of it still in suspension. If you rack this very clear beer in to your bottle bucket without picking up any of the cake, then you have a very clear beer with a low population of yeast going in to bottles. In bigger beers it can take a long while for them to grow their population back up and eat the priming sugar, since they're sluggish in bigger ABV beers. To remedy this problem I always purposely dip my auto-siphon in to the cake when I rack and pick up a little yeast. It doesn't take much, and it's not going to give you cloudy beer or excessive amounts of bottle sediment. It's not an end all type of remedy, but I noticed my bigger beers started carbing a bit faster once I started doing this.

 

[Stauffbier]

Thanks so much. The bottles live in my basement which is generally in the 60's. I'll bring a bunch upstairs where it's warmer.

Thanks again.

That will help. At those temps it will still carb, but much more slowly.

 

[Revvy]

To add to what Revvy said, I picked up a trick over time that seemed to help speed up the process. When you let your beer sit in the fermenter as long as 3-4 weeks it will get extremely clear. In that process a very large amount of the yeast has dropped out, and there is a much smaller population of it still in suspension. If you rack this very clear beer in to your bottle bucket without picking up any of the cake, then you have a very clear beer with a low population of yeast going in to bottles. In bigger beers it can take a long while for them to grow their population back up and eat the priming sugar, since they're sluggish in bigger ABV beers. To remedy this problem I always purposely dip my auto-siphon in to the cake when I rack and pick up a little yeast. It doesn't take much, and it's not going to give you cloudy beer or excessive amounts of bottle sediment. It's not an end all type of remedy, but I noticed my bigger beers started carbing a bit faster once I started doing this.

Yep. I usually just run the autosiphon once across the bottom to rouse a bit of the yeast, then raise it above the bed until it runs clear again. Then if you lower it carefully back down it usually will form a runnel in the trub, and no more will come through.