Low Carbonation, but Stalled Conditioning???

[BigB]

Interesting little problem I noticed. The first time I assumed I just screwed up, but this time, not sure what is going on. At any rate, I just had my second batch with low carbonation. The first time I assumed I mismeasured and didn't use enough corn sugar. Went and had several good batches since. But I noticed the batch with low carbonation would seem to foam up slightly as it warmed up... almost as if it started fermenting again. Well, I just had another batch with low carbonation...but this time I am positive I used 4 ozs of corn sugar. The odd thing is that I opened all of the bottles to add some more corn sugar, and by the time I finished, I noticed that a few of them did that foaming thing again, like it was fermenting. Now for the answers to the questions I am sure are coming: 2 different recipes. Both conditioned for a minimum of 3 weeks. Both conditioned at 68-72 F. The first batch I tried the shaking the bottles up and letting them sit for a couple weeks longer... No help. NO off flavors, no off smells. Just simply beer with seemingly very low carbonation.

Any Ideas?

 

[Revvy]

You just need more patience. If a beer isn't ready at three weeks, there's nothing wrong.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that 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."

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.

 

[BigB]

As I noted, this is the second batch that has done this. The first batch has now (what few I have left) been conditioning for about 21 weeks, NO IMPROVEMENT. So, I'm sure I can be patient, as I always am... but this is not from being impatient.. I know the difference between a beer that is not ready and a beer that is simply not carbing up. So, now back to my first question... Any ideas why a beer would suddenly start foaming up on its own in less than an hour? Again, no off flavors, no off smells. Oh, and should I mention that both beers were LOW gravity beers. So instead of me f'kn around for another 21 weeks, does anybody have any other insight besides the typical "be patient" response?

 

[dummkauf]

Also, you might want to up the corn sugar from 4oz too. I've bottled one batch using 4oz and it seemed under carbed for my tastes. I usually use between 4.5oz to 5oz these days which much better results. The beer I did with 4oz wasn't bad, but I prefer a bit more fiz in my beers, and it sounds like you are the same way.

 

[BigB]

Also, you might want to up the corn sugar from 4oz too. I've bottled one batch using 4oz and it seemed under carbed for my tastes. I usually use between 4.5oz to 5oz these days which much better results. The beer I did with 4oz wasn't bad, but I prefer a bit more fiz in my beers, and it sounds like you are the same way.

I have considered this as well. I actually bottled another batch yesterday and I did bump that up to 5 oz. Yesterday's batch will actually make a good comparison because I did this beer before at 4 oz. The 4 oz version was good, but it will be interesting to see the difference the extra oz makes.