Room Temp affecting Carbonation?

[PDevlin75]

Hey folks!

So I'm not going to freak out and dump my beer out - But.... I had brewed up a partial mash pumpkin beer from NB. All was going well throughout fermentation. Bottled it up, and tried a sample as I went along. Tasted great!

Two weeks went by in the bottle, and I tried one for the first time. It was rather flat. Still tasted "okay", but the flatness killed it for me.

I had noticed that the room they were stored in got a little warmer than the rest of the house. But it wasn't offensively hot... It couldn't have gone higher than 80 F, and not for the entire two weeks (a day or two, here and there). But would that be enough to throw things off a bit?

I was really looking forward to a good pumpkin beer, and was disappointed in that first bottle. So I opened a Southern Tier Pumking that was in my fridge... I noticed that THAT was a little on the flat side. Could it just be that the style of beer doesn't lend itself to having much of a head on it? (Fridge is working fine, by the way)

Also, I had bottled 4 gallons with about 3.5-4 oz of priming sugar, dissolved in boiling water. I had set aside another (5th) gallon for experimentation, and bottled those with sugar tabs. I didn't use the full 5 oz of priming sugar that the directions called for, since I wasn't bottling the full 5 gallons in one bucket. I don't think I made that much of an error with the sugar.... Right?

My instinct is to just let them hang out a couple of weeks more, and try again.

Just figured I'd see if anybody might be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks!
-Pete

 

[hunter_le five]

Let it sit at least another week before you do anything else. While beer is sometimes fully carbed after 2 weeks, it's not at all uncommon for beer to take a full 3 weeks to carb up.

No, the warm room temp will not inhibit bottle carbonation.

 

[mannye]

Usually I wait a month after bottling. I brew in Miami Beach so I will venture that the heat has nothing to do with it. I also use a cup to 5 gallons (don't know how much weight that is exactly maybe 6 or so oz?) but a lot of people recommend a little less (7/8 cup I think) so you should be fine if you are priming 4 gallons or less.

 

[BanditBrewCo]

Depending on the Starting and Final gravity it could take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3-4 months to carbonate not accounting for yeast strain, aging time and many other factors. Higher temps tend to quicken the fermentation (carbonation) times but can lead to off flavors from stressing the yeast and head retention can be affected by a whole new batch of factors. I have done several pumpkin beers and all have come out great from kegs and bottling. Personal opinion is to let them sit for another 1-2 weeks and taste again since your priming sugar is not an issue. As long as the yeast are still alive they will eat the new sugars and carb your bottles... eventually.

 

[PDevlin75]

Right on... I kinda figured they need a little more time.

Going camping in a month, and I'm really looking forward to bringing some of these along... That should give them plenty of time to come around!

This was only my 5th brew, but I felt like it all went well up until I tasted it. The warm room was the only thing I could think of. But I was oblivious to the fact that people, like Mannye (excellent avatar, btw), live and brew in far warmer locations than I do - So that shouldn't be a problem. Good to know!

The separate gallon had some Graham Cracker extract added to it... Now THAT is going to need a whole lot of time!!! The alcohol from the extract made the beer taste awful! That's definitely going to need to mellow out for a while.

Thanks!
-Pete

 

[day_trippr]

Allow me to retort.

We all see yeast used during the throes of fermentation manage to reduce an imperial crap ton of sugars into CO2, alcohol, and a host of flavors and aromas in a mere handful of days. Yet the popular opinion is that the same yeast in a moderately strong beer will require two to three weeks to take down the easiest sugar for them to digest.

Disconnect much?

When I was still bottling oh-so-long-ago, for my typical 60-point brew I'd allow one week at room temperature for the priming charge to disappear, then two weeks cold-conditioning for the beer to absorb that CO2.

It never failed....

Cheers!

 

[mannye]

Allow me to retort you retort. Lol. Retort. I love that word.

I'm sure you had plenty of success with your system (and I'm a little mad I never tried that before I moved to kegging) BUT....

You're not just bottling and carbing, you're also aging and allowing as much yeast as possible to flocculate. Flocculate. Another woody word. Your method will also allow that and effectively cold crash if indeed the yeasty beasties are done after 7 days.

Now, would my beers have been nicely carbed after a week? Probably. Do I know that for sure? Nope.

Could there be other reasons the OP didn't get fizz? Yes. One of them would be only waiting one week before cold crashing and making your yeast go dormant!

Retort.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[day_trippr]

I can't think of anything to add...

Cheers!

 

[smccarter]

I say pour it all out. No need to wait. If it isn't exactly perfect right now, give up and throw in the towel. You can always brew more beer.

Relax folks.. that was just a joke.