Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com

Carbonation confusion

Northern Brewer General
#1

So it’s been just over 8 weeks since I bottled my weizenbock. My target carb level was 2.6 vols which called for 5.2oz of corn sugar. This was more priming sugar than I’ve ever used previously so I was kinda nervous about getting gushers but trusted the calculator I used and went with it. Fast forward 8 weeks and it remains the most under-carbed beer I’ve ever made. I can pour the bottle completely vertically down the center of the glass and i get maybe a finger of head. I would estimate it around 2.0 vols.

For the record I stored the bottles at 75 degrees for the first 4 weeks and roused the yeast daily. I’d say 4 weeks is about where the carbonation level peaked and hasn’t gotten any better since.

Any ideas? I didn’t change my priming/bottling process at all.

#2

Is it possible your glasses have soap or dish washer spot remover in them. Try this test. Open a bottle of beer that has been chilled for three days. Shake it up. Does it foam over? If it does the problem is not your beer.
Shake it up over the sink.

#3

Yeah it’s definitely not a head retention issue its just very undercarbonated. I don’t care too much about the head and it’s still drinkable I just wish it had more carbonation. Not really sure what went wrong but would really like to prevent this is in the future.

#4

I’m guessing it’s just the full body of the beer making the carbonation process move slowly. I may be making an unfounded assumption, but I’m thinking that the beer probably had a bit more residual malt sugar than average going into the bottle; this style being fairly high in alcohol, if you went by traditional style guidelines. 8 weeks does seem like a pretty long time to wait for the beer to be fully carbonated, though. Who knows? In another month, you might see a lot more carbonation. Only time can tell. I’d just wait another month or so, and if the beer isn’t any more carbonated at that point, it’s pretty safe to say that it’s as carbonated as it’s going to get. I’m sure it’s still a good beer, though, right?

#5

In Northern Bewers carbonation calculator I input these numbers.
Desired volume CO2: 2.6
Current temperature of beer: 83°
Volume of beer in gallons: 5
Corn sugar–5.21 ounces
To have 2.6 volumes, with 5.2 ounces of corn sugar, the beer temp at time of bottling needed to be 83°. This temp is not realistic. What priming calculator did you use?

#6

5.2 ounces by weight is a correct amount of sugar for a weizenbock carbonation level.

The only possibility I can offer is that the yeast was too tired to eat. You could uncap, drop in a “grain” or two of dry yeast and re cap if you believe this is the cause.

#7
http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

It was about 5.25g total.

Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com