Hey guys so I have a quick question, my most recent batch of brew has a very strange inconstancy with the carbonation from bottle to bottle. The first few I opened up were perfect then the next two were flat dead flat then again yesterday it was super carbed all were conditioned the same time same place and put in the fridge same time. Only thing I noticed was the two dead flat ones were in those short Sierra Nevada bottles. The other thing may have something to do with it was I forgot to rack on top of my priming sugar mix and had to dump it into the bottling bucket after I had racked the beer in maybe that had something to do with it?
Inconsistancy with carbonation
- Thread starter crash568
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Whenever someone says they have inconsistant carbonation it's really that you don't have a carbonation problem, you just have a patience one.
The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, 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.
And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out. You have green beer.
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."
You may have just caught the beers as they were individually starting to pop, and happened to have grabbed the first ones that actually did carb, and assumed the rest already did, when they hadn't yet.
Inconsistant carbonation, usually simply means that they are not ready yet. If you had opened them a week later, or even two, you never would have noticed. Each one is it's own little microcosm, and although generally the should come up at the same time, it's not an automatic switch, and they all pop on.
Like Chesire asked.
A tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.
Bottom line, it's not that the sugar's not mixed, it's just that they all haven't come up to full carb yet....Three weeks is not the magic number for finality, it's the minimum time it takes....
Pull them out of the fridge, give them a little shake to kick the yeast up, and make sure they're above 70 for a couple more weeks.
The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, 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.
And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out. You have green beer.
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."
You may have just caught the beers as they were individually starting to pop, and happened to have grabbed the first ones that actually did carb, and assumed the rest already did, when they hadn't yet.
Inconsistant carbonation, usually simply means that they are not ready yet. If you had opened them a week later, or even two, you never would have noticed. Each one is it's own little microcosm, and although generally the should come up at the same time, it's not an automatic switch, and they all pop on.
Like Chesire asked.
A tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.
Bottom line, it's not that the sugar's not mixed, it's just that they all haven't come up to full carb yet....Three weeks is not the magic number for finality, it's the minimum time it takes....
Pull them out of the fridge, give them a little shake to kick the yeast up, and make sure they're above 70 for a couple more weeks.
temple240
Well-Known Member
Did you attempt to mix at all or did you just pour the priming sugar on top and start bottling? How long has it been since you bottled?
It's also possible that the caps didn't seal properly on the sierra Nevada bottles that you said were dead flat.
It was boiled priming solution, right? If it was in it's liquid form, it still more than likely integrated with the flow of the liquids going into the bottles. The density of beer and priming solutions are too similar for them really not easily mesh with even the slightest of motion.
Now dropping dry sugar is another matter.
Now dropping dry sugar is another matter.
Thanks for all the replies guys, it was boiled sugar and water and they sat for 3 weeks in my kitchen which was around 70* so I'm only assuming some where ready and others were not but hey just another lesson learned for the next batch!
Thunder_Chicken
Well-Known Member
+1 what Revvy said. 3 weeks is a bare minimum. A little more time never hurts. I've sampled early and had inconsistent carbonation, but weeks later everything was very nicely and evenly carbonated. One bottle could be a tad warmer, or got 3 extra yeast cells during bottling, or any of a million other factors that could cause one bottle to carb up a bit faster than another, but time levels all those factors out. If you dissolved your sugar before mixing it in everything should be fine with time.
When I've followed the instructions and poured my boiled sugar solution into the bottling bucket an racked my beer into that I sometimes get inconsistent carbonation. I've learned to start siphoning the beer first and when there is an inch or 2 of beer in the bucked I pour the sugar solution in and then using a sanitized spoon, slowly stir the beer.
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