I have made several batches and have not had any problems until this past summer making a Honey Kolsch. There was very little to no carbonation after the two weeks in the bottle. I almost gave up on it and poured them out, but tried one more and it was fine (this was after 4-5 months in the bottle). I just made a Brown Ale and it too has little carbonation after two weeks.
I made a Winter Ale and was hopping it would be ready around Christmas. It is ready to bottle so I was wondering if there is anything I can do to prevent a slow carbonation time?
I know it tastes better with time, I’m just not a good at planning ahead. Cheers!
Carbonation time can be shortened by keeping the bottles warmer. 72° to 75°F is good. I use an aquarium heater in a deep tray of water. The heater holds the water temperature between 75° and 76°F.
Electric blanket is another viable option to help maintain temps while bottle conditioning. FIRST THOUGH, make sure you start with a healthy yeast population. If you stress your yeast then expect them to continue to perform for bottle conditioning you are asking a lot (and for trouble).
+1 on keeping the bottles warm. I had a batch this fall that I fermented on the colder side for the yeast and since it went so well in the fermenter, I thought I could bottle condition at the same temperature. After 10 days, there wasn’t much going on. So I put the bottles in a cooler with warm water in it. Kept it around 70 to 75. They carbonated quickly after that. It could be the presence of alcohol, pressure, etc., but the yeast don’t behave the same way in the bottle that they do in the fermenter.
