Single bottle carbonation - Sour

[mgudmastad]

EDIT: Single Bottle Carbonation - Not Fermentation.....


I brewed a beer in early January with Wyeast 3711 (French Saison), belgian sour mix (WLP655), and dregs from about 10 different beers. I'm only two months into aging, but it is already down to .998 and I want to bottle 2-3 bottles every couple weeks to compare flavors as it ages. I'm looking for 2.5 volumes, or a bit more. The beer is in secondary.

Everyone seems to have different opinions of how to do this. I have some Fizz Drops, which would be really easy. I also have a carbonation cap - though I haven't tried carbonating beer with it yet. If I bottle carb, do I use yeast (due to the low FG)? Or a bit of the slurry I saved from primary?

 

[mgudmastad]

One other note - it is also a high gravity beer. Started out at 1.071...

 

[duboman]

Well, the main factor involved is whether the beer is actually at FG or still fermenting regardless of what product you use to carbonate. If the beer isn't done then you risk exploding bottles no matter what or how much you use.


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[BGBC]

There should still be plenty of active yeast/bugs in the beer, so I don't think you'd need to add any yeast at bottling. The low FG doesn't have an impact.

I haven't used a carb cap or fizz drops, but if you calculate the volume that you want to bottle, you could use any of the online carbonation calculators to determine how much priming sugar to add (in grams).

 

[BGBC]

Also, I know you didn't ask, but one risk with this plan is potential oxidation of the beer by opening it up every couple of weeks. I get what you're trying to do, but the beers at the end of the batch might start to suffer, and you won't know if it's just from age or from exposure.

 

[mgudmastad]

Gravity is stable. Good point on the oxidation. I think I'll split into two or three bottling batches. I'll do a couple with fizz drops and update the thread in a few weeks.


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