Priming with lagered beer - have I got this right?

[jack13]

Based on my understanding of what I've read here, I think I know how much corn sugar I need to carb my Vienna lager.

But could someone tell me if I've got it right?...

Primary fermention at 48F (Wyeast Bavarian Lager yeast) 13 days.
D rest at mid to high 60's. This ended up being for 10 days.
Lagered at 38F for 43 days. Don't think it's relevant, but this was in glass, with almost zero headspace.
(OG 1.52, FG 1.013)

I'm thinking that during the long (10 day) d-rest at approx. 67F, the beer gave up lots of CO2. And although it spent most of its life at 38F lagering, I should ignore that fact because it wasn't producing any CO2 then anyway.

So I believe I should enter 67F in a priming calculator as the "temperature" of the beer" or "current temperature of the beer".

Is that correct? And is my thinking correct, as well? I'm really trying to understand this because I've had a hard time with proper carbing. And, no, I can't keg right now.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, if you're using a priming calculator, use the temperature of the beer at the highest temperature.

I don't use a priming calculator, and just go with .75-1 ounce of corn sugar per finished gallon. Generally, for a lager I use about 4.5 ounces of corn sugar for the batch.

 

[jack13]

Yes, if you're using a priming calculator, use the temperature of the beer at the highest temperature.

I don't use a priming calculator, and just go with .75-1 ounce of corn sugar per finished gallon. Generally, for a lager I use about 4.5 ounces of corn sugar for the batch.

Thanks, will do.

But again in an effort to understand, let me ask: Are there any factors other than temperature, batch size, and desired carb level?

That's all the calculators ask for, but if that was really all there is to it, I don't know why I've had beers that are identical in all those ways, used the same amount of priming sugar, but ended with drastically different levels of carb.

I've got a stout right now that I used only 83g of priming sugar for (5.5 gallon batch). They are so fizzy I have to pour each one into a bowl, let it sit, then pour into a glass just so it's not all foam. Fermentation was high 60's all the way. Even had one bottle bomb from that batch (my only one ever, luckily). I could give other examples of carbination wackiness (incl. undercarb).

Obviously, if fermentation isn't done, that would increase carbination or even cause bottle bombs. But I tend to let my beer ferment a long time, and test with a refractometer over several days to make sure they're done. Anything else I should consider, even though it's not in the calculators?

 

[flars]

I had a porter gradually increase in carbonation over a 5 week period of conditioning. I bottled after the SG was steady for 6 days. The yeast was WY 1332. I checked the SG of one of the bottles. It had dropped 7 gravity points. Might be worthwhile checking the SG of one of your bottles.

Saved the beer by releasing the extra CO2.

 

[GrimBrewer]

There are other factors in carbing but other than infection or yeast still fermenting they normally have less impact. Im still learning/tweaking mine as I am brewig and bottling. Most of my initial beers were overcarbed, so ive been reducing it with each new batch. Think I have the sweetspot for my pales and ipas.

We did have issues at one point with bottels not beig carbed at same levels from same batch. So we started to mix the sugar more in bottling bucket and promblem is gone