Brewing

I've been brewing for 21 years, and I still remember how agonizing those first batches were to wait on, especially that first one!

Yes and it seems I'll be waiting longer as it still hasn't carbed up lol.

Been brewing for better than 15 years too. Extract partial boil batches for about half that time, then a friend convinced me to go all grain. Converted the brewery to electric with PID temperature control two years ago. Still mash in an old 60 quart cooler, but want to try recirculating the mash so may upgrade that soon. Like DE shaving, I'm doing it to save money, right??

I would also be happy to answer any questions from new home brewers.

Brian

Well guys 3 weeks in bottles and still hardly any carbonation. Is this batch a dud?

Also, thanks Brian.

Doesn't sound good. You could go bionic woman on it get some liquid white labs yeast a mix it in some warming water with corn sugar then put a teeny bit in each bottle and recap. You may get a bunch of gushes or exploders. When I bottled I never let it clear up totally before bottling. I wanted residual cells for cafbonation. It never bothered the beer.

IME, 3 weeks is enough time to carbonate if the room temperature is in the low to mid 70's. Cooler than that and it'll take longer. I think it's too soon to call it a dud. Give it another week and try another bottle.

Well they are on the kitchen counter and the house is between 68 and 70

beinert said:

IME, 3 weeks is enough time to carbonate if the room temperature is in the low to mid 70's. Cooler than that and it'll take longer. I think it's too soon to call it a dud. Give it another week and try another bottle.

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I was about to say the very same thing.

Any improvement in the carbonation level?

Funny you ask that I cracked a bottle tonight which makes it a little over 4.5 weeks.

This is what it looks like poured straight from a cold bottle to the center of the glass. Not pouring down the side, this should make the beer as heady as possible so you can see where it stands. Terrible lol.

I've had duds like that a few times. Make sure you are using a good carbonation calculator. I use beersmith to document everything about my beers.

Make sure to account for temperature of the beer at bottling, the kind of yeast you use, FG, final bottling volume and the type of sugar you are priming with. All of those factors will change how much priming sugar you need to use.

Finally, boil the priming sugar in a small amount of water, then add it to the bottling bucket before you transfer in the beer. That way, it will all get mixed in evenly as you transfer the beer from the fermenter.

I didn't use priming sugar. I used carb tabs.

chevelleguy0 said:

I didn't use priming sugar. I used carb tabs.

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Last year when I got a bunch of stuff at my LHBS, the owner tossed a bag of carb tabs in with my order. I've only used them with small experimental batches, but I feel like they always carbonate a bit lower than I'd like. I just cracked a 2l bottle of red ale that I had aged on oak and dryhopped (leftover from brewing an Evil Dead Red clone for Halloween) and carbed with the tablets--it's the first time that I was satisfied with the result. I'd go with using some form of sugar and a good carbonation calculator to make sure you end up where you want to be.

Yes, I've never heard good things about carb tabs. A decent kitchen scale that will read in grams and pretty much any free carbonation calculator. Table sugar is fine, or a lot of people use dextrose

Yes, carb tabs are glacially slow. Dextrose is great, being cheap, neutral in character, and super easy to dissolve (no boiling necessary). I used DME a lot, actually, but it's also on the slower side.

Well maybe more time then?

It can't hurt, and you might just get you there. Unfortunately, the yeastie beasties don't really take orders or follow instructions as well as we would like.

Well it's officially a dud batch. I checked one over the weekend and the carb never changed. Sure glad I didn't try to brew 5 gallons lol.

Well, shoot. That goes to show you that they don't always work out, but you did the right thing to wait on it and give it plenty of time. You would hate to dump something when it just would have taken a couple extra weeks or so of waiting.