Should beer be carbinated after 2 weeks in bottle?

[Moobesor]

After in primary for 8 days then in secondary for another 7 days, then bottled with 5 oz corn sugar -- shouldn't beer be fully carbinated after two weeks?

there's a nice release of gas when cap is pried off, but beer seems slightly flat. It tastes great, but lacks bubbles.

Not yet fully conditioned or is it something else? Here's recipe:

7lbs Pale malt
1lb flaked corn
1lb honey malt
8 oz biscuit malt
8 oz cara-pils/dextrine
8 oz flaked wheat
1 oz goldings
1 oz willamette
1 pkg Nottingham yeast
9.6oz corn sugar (in boil for higher gravity)

5 oz priming sugar when bottling

Curious if the flaked corn and flaked wheat do opposite things -- e.g., one for a crisp beer and the other for a smoother beer?

Also, what exactly does the carapils do? I thought it assisted with head retention?

 

[IffyG]

Before you get the standard response of wait longer (which you might need to do). Has the beer been in the fridge for few days before you opened it? When I bottle, I generally leave them in the fridge for at least 3 days before opening them to let the CO2 go into solution and the yeast drop out.

 

[duboman]

If the beer has been carbonating in the fridge then they will take longer, ideally you want the bottles to kept around 70 and 3 weeks is average time then fridge for a 3-5 days

Sorry but yes the standard answer is be patient and wait, they will get there

 

[Obliviousbrew]

I agree with te comment above AT LEAST 3 weeks at 70 is what you need.

 

[dadnboys]

The advice offered above us sound. I have had beer take 4-5 weeks to recarbonate depending on the style. If you had good primary fermentation and only a 7 day secondary you should be fine in an additional week or two at 70-75 degrees in the bottle. Did you boil the corn sugar in a pint of water and let it cool to 75 degrees before adding it to your beer?

 

[Revvy]

It's the standard response because it's 99.9% the right one, otherwise there wouldn't be a DAILY barrage of "It's been 2 weeks and my beer's not carbed" threads, would there be?

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.


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."

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more 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.

The fact that is got some gas means it's getting there...not that it's there.

 

[IffyG]

It's the standard response because it's 99.9% the right one, otherwise there wouldn't be a DAILY barrage of "It's been 2 weeks and my beer's not carbed" threads, would there be?

When you do a month long primary, it does take at least 3 weeks to carb thoroughly in my experience. My experience with 2 week primaries is that the beer is plenty carbed at 2 weeks+48 hours in the fridge. I'm sorry my experience doesn't jive with yours, but it is what it is.

 

[Moobesor]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Revvy]

I've never seen a correlation between length of time in primary and carbonation time. Nor have I experienced one.

When you add the fresh sugar to the bottles, THAT'S where the carbonation clock begins.

It's that fermentation and co2 development that takes 3 weeks or more to develop. It's the same whether you bottled after 10 days or 10 weeks (In a primary or a secondary.)

 

[progmac]

we begin accepting questions after three weeks in the bottles

 

[Revvy]

we begin accepting questions after three weeks in the bottles

AYUP....

We don't tell folks to wait because we want to torture new brewers and make them want to leave the hobby so there are less of them to compete against at contests and we want to be able to by their gear off craigslist dirt cheap. We tell them that, because that's how long it tends to take.

And all you have to do is see all those threads on here every week where folks complained about lack of carb and when you ask them how long the beer's been in the bottle they say it's been under three weeks. And if you follow up on those threads, usually the OP comes back after that period to announce their beer is carbed fine now....

Carbing is a natural process, it takes as long as it takes....and that's usually longer than we all want it to.

 

[bk0]

I've had brews nicely carbonated in as little as 5 days...maybe sooner but that's the quickest I've dared to open one.

After about a week they seem to be at their peak, this includes a RIS I just did which came in at an OG of 1.092. I don't know why they're so quick, maybe I bottle them with more yeast in suspension or something.

 

[kh54s10]

I am a bit impatient so I open ONE after 2 weeks. About 1/2 of them are well carbed. That is not to say they are really ready. I had one that at 2 weeks I didn't really like. At 3 weeks it tasted really good. I also had one that did not fully carb for more that 1.5 months.

Try ONE after a couple/few weeks, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready......

 

[PhelanKA7]

The only beer I've ever had carb faster 3-4 weeks are low gravity wheat beers.

 

[homebrewdad]

Try ONE after a couple/few weeks, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready wait another week and try ONE, if it is not ready......

My prblem with this is that I'd look back and mourn the green beer that I drank that could have been good beer.

Note that a fully carbed beer still may or may not be ready - lots of beers hit a peak a couple weeks or more after fully carbing.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

My prblem with this is that I'd look back and mourn the green beer that I drank that could have been good beer.

Note that a fully carbed beer still may or may not be ready - lots of beers hit a peak a couple weeks or more after fully carbing.

I agree patience is the only way to go just give time to your beer and brew often so you have a good pipeline going