Wit started carbonation in primary?! Or am I dreaming?

[RoaringBrewer]

So, I brewed a 2.25 gallon of belgian wit 8 days ago and put it in the primary. Recipe as follows:

3lb. Dry Malt Extract Wheat(55)/Barley(45)
3/4oz. Hallarteur for 60 Mins

1/4 Oz. for 10 mins
1 Tsp. Crushed Corriander for 10 mins
1/4oz. Sweet Orange Zest for 10 mins

Used White Labs pitchable tube Belgian Wit yeast.

I know the DME was a little much for 2.25 gallons as my OG was 1.060. I wasn't aware of the 3lb. LME = 2.75lb DME or whatever the conversion is... Anyway, figured I'd live with a little higher alcohol wheat.

I should also note this fermented vehemently for 5 days and I fermented this at ~74 degrees the entire 8 days. I read somewhere that some belgian wits were fermented at higher temps to bring out some of the fruity/estery tastes, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Plus if I put my mini-fermenter in the basement its too cold for ales, so I used the kitchen.

Anyway, I want to rack to secondary today, so tested the gravity and got a FG of 1.013. 78% attenuation seemed pretty good to me! And alcohol content a little over 6% isn't terrible. Not usual style for a wheat I suppose, but drinkable.

Anyway, all seems well except I tasted it. Tasted like a good balanced wheat except I THINK I tasted a little carbonation in the few sips I tried. Not much, but kinda felt some bubbles and/or grainyness to the sample. Maybe I'm dreaming. I only took 4-5 small sips. Is it possible to get some carbonation in the primary? I wouldn't think as it isn't airtight. Maybe I AM just dreaming?

I guess I should just rack to secondary today, let sit for 2 weeks, and then bottle and see what happens?

 

[Evan!]

It's probably something else that caused a sensation similar to carbonation. Unless the container is sealed VERY tight (i.e., bottled) co2 can't be forced into the beer. Unless someone else has some thoughts...I could always be wrong.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Yeah, it could just have been a lot of suspended yeast (it was very cloudy) causing a gritiness. That's my only other guess. Tasted darn near perfect otherwise; for a 6.0ABV wit.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Believe it or not, it's carbonation. The pressure of an airlock is enough to force some CO2 into solution. Sometimes you can see some carbonation being released when you rack to secondary. The samples I steal from the secondary prior to bottling/kegging are almost always very lightly carbonated just from the yeast doing its thing.

 

[david_42]

Once the ferment starts, the yeast are constantly making CO2. Some of that stays in solution, even at fermentation temperatures and atmospheric pressure.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Cool. I still want to carbonate this beer the same after I leave it in secondary for two weeks? I mean, I'm not going to cause bottle bombs by overcarbonating or something?