Will my carbonation increase anymore?

Turk10mm · Jan 5, 2011

So I made my first beer and this is week 3. Its a minimash AHS Belgian Whit kit. It spent one week in primary, one week in secondary and today is the 6th day in the bottle. When I poured it the head went away very quickly. The color is a hazy straw yellow, but not nearly as hazy as I expected. It has a good flavor with a light maltiness to it. The nose is sweet with orange and spices and also has a bit of a raisin undertone. The taste is very lightly sweet with a nice balance of bitter and a touch of tartness.

The beer tastes very nice for my first attempt, but I'm a little perplexed by its lack of carbonation. There's just a tickle on the tongue and the head is completely gone within a couple of minutes leaving only a hint of head around the edges of the glass. My og started at around 1.048 and my FG was 1.012. I used 4.5 ounces of priming sugar that came with the kit.

My hope is that I was to impatient and tried the beer too early. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

miggedymike · Jan 5, 2011

Bottle carbing, assuming you used enough priming solution per recipe, usually takes 3 weeks or longer when stored in a warmer room, about 70 degrees. Give it some time.

Revvy · Jan 5, 2011

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.

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."

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore 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.