Carbonation time

[freisste]

I know a high ABV brew can commonly take longer to bottle carb than than a standard ABV (5-6%) beer. I generally go by the 3 weeks at 70 should be good, but it could take longer. I figure double or triple for a high ABV beer. Or longer. It seems that they benefit from bottle conditioning anyway, so why rush the carbing.

My question is this: Just before Christmas I brewed an RIS which I let sit for several months in primary and then secondary. After that I kegged it and let it sit longer. Finally I force carbed in the keg for a good two weeks. Maybe 3-3.5, can't remember exactly. When I went to fill bottles with my bottle filler, it was considerably less carbonated (or seemed to be) than the Oktoberfest that had spent less time under pressure. Is this common? The O-fest was like 5% or so compared to the stout at 13ish (added bourbon).

Thoughts? Was it actually less carbed or did the alcohol decrease water tension (biggest effect was essentially no head going into the bottles, making it WAY easier to deal with)? Or is it actually more difficult to force carb a high ABV beer? Thanks in advance.

 

[454k30]

You're on the right track for your carbonation differences. For starters you have completely different styles of beer that were carbed in a similar way. The RIS has a much higher alcohol content and actual distilled spirits which, from what I have seen, greatly reduce the amount of foam. You could try putting more pressure to it but I think that you are always going to lose that head retention much more quickly with that bigger beer. There are some other discussions about this on this board. I think I recycled it fairly accurately.

 

[freisste]

Thanks. I haven't actually had any to drink yet, I was just excited at how well I could use my bottle filler from the keg...until I realized how BAD I still was when it and to the O-fest. Must just be the surface tension. I'll try a bottle some time and let everyone know what the mouthfeel was like.