So this Belgian Strong that I'm sitting on is in a bit of a conundrum. 1 month primary, bottled on 11/14, and because my last beer (an IIPA) was pretty over-carbonated, I cut down the amount of priming sugar to, roughly, 4 to 4.25 oz. into about 4 1/2 gallons of finished brew. (I don't have a scale in the house, so I rough guessed it by dividing the 5 oz. bag into 5 even sections.)
Bottles were kept near my back door, and temps have dipped in the low 30's at night for the last 2 weeks, but I didn't think it would affect things that much. So, 2 1/2 weeks later, I chill one down and pop it to check on flavor, but the thing let off one of the weakest "pfffft"s that I've ever heard. Slim to nil head with a bit of bubbles on the side of the glass, but nada in the beer itself.
Now yes, I've read about aging bigger beers to get better carbonation. The thing is, I'm worried that I didn't use enough of the priming sugar to really get anything going in the first place. If it doesn't carb up within the next week (and considering it needs to be drinkable by Xmas), would carbonation drops be a good choice in this situation? I realize bottle bombs might be an issue, but for right now, there's not enough going on in-bottle to worry about it.
Recipe, since I know someone will ask:
OG: 1.082
FG: 1.020 (finished a bit early, had abnormally warm temps during the 1st-4th days, and it was hard keeping the temp down)
ABV: 8.3%
.5# Special B
.5# CaraMunich
8.5# Light Pilsen LME
1.5# Bavarian Wheat DME
1.5# Dark Candi syrup
2 oz. Fuggles @ 60 min.
1 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 10 min.
Whirlfloc
White Labs WLP500 (Trappist) and WLP530 (Abbey)
(Sidenote: I moved the cases to a spot near the central heater in the house a few days ago and shook each bottle up, but I still don't see much carbing happening.)
Bottles were kept near my back door, and temps have dipped in the low 30's at night for the last 2 weeks, but I didn't think it would affect things that much. So, 2 1/2 weeks later, I chill one down and pop it to check on flavor, but the thing let off one of the weakest "pfffft"s that I've ever heard. Slim to nil head with a bit of bubbles on the side of the glass, but nada in the beer itself.
Now yes, I've read about aging bigger beers to get better carbonation. The thing is, I'm worried that I didn't use enough of the priming sugar to really get anything going in the first place. If it doesn't carb up within the next week (and considering it needs to be drinkable by Xmas), would carbonation drops be a good choice in this situation? I realize bottle bombs might be an issue, but for right now, there's not enough going on in-bottle to worry about it.
Recipe, since I know someone will ask:
OG: 1.082
FG: 1.020 (finished a bit early, had abnormally warm temps during the 1st-4th days, and it was hard keeping the temp down)
ABV: 8.3%
.5# Special B
.5# CaraMunich
8.5# Light Pilsen LME
1.5# Bavarian Wheat DME
1.5# Dark Candi syrup
2 oz. Fuggles @ 60 min.
1 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 10 min.
Whirlfloc
White Labs WLP500 (Trappist) and WLP530 (Abbey)
(Sidenote: I moved the cases to a spot near the central heater in the house a few days ago and shook each bottle up, but I still don't see much carbing happening.)