under carbed or just impatient?

[4ferraras]

I bottled my first all grain batch about 20 days ago and tried it for the first time last night. I was surprised to find it very under carbonated. That has never happened to me. I think it has to do with trying a secondary fermentation for the first time..I read that doing a secondary obviously settles out more yeast so there is less for carbonation. Correct? Am I just being impatient and the carbonation will come or could there be a problem? It tastes great but it has very little fizz...

Thanks, John

 

[jmcnamara]

Some will settle in secondary, but there's still plenty of yeast floating in suspension to carb it up.

All you need is one yeast cell, sugar, and some time and it'll carb up

Give it another week or 2 and I'm sure it'll be better

 

[jeffpn]

Unless you filtered it with a filter fine enough to remove yeast (I bet you didn't), there is plenty of suspended yeast available for priming. You should be able to see some at the bottoms of your bottles. What temp did you condition the beer?

 

[4ferraras]

Some will settle in secondary, but there's still plenty of yeast floating in suspension to carb it up.

All you need is one yeast cell, sugar, and some time and it'll carb up

Give it another week or 2 and I'm sure it'll be better

That's what I thought but it's hard because I've never had to wait longer than 2 weeks... Thanks!

 

[4ferraras]

Unless you filtered it with a filter fine enough to remove yeast (I bet you didn't), there is plenty of suspended yeast available for priming. You should be able to see some at the bottoms of your bottles. What temp did you condition the beer?

No filtering, I didn't notice any sediment in the bottle but I wasn't paying attention at the time. I conditioned the bottled beer at room temp which is about 78 degrees F. Thanks!

 

[4ferraras]

This was also the first time controlling fermentation temperatures.. I bought the cooler bag and used frozen water bottles to keep the temps between 68-72.

 

[J A]

Most undercarbing can be attributed to not adding enough priming sugar. If you've got that right, then it's a matter of time.

 

[jmcnamara]

That's what I thought but it's hard because I've never had to wait longer than 2 weeks... Thanks!

You could always plan that next brew while you wait

 

[Gledison]

Most undercarbing can be attributed to not adding enough priming sugar

+1. or could be just this bottle that is not carbonated (bad cap, who knows)

 

[4ferraras]

+1. or could be just this bottle that is not carbonated (bad cap, who knows)

I tried a second bottle from case #2 of bottling. Same thing. very little carbonation. I made sure to pay attention which bottles were bottled first and so on...I hope it's not the capper as I've bottled another batch since that one...I use the silver caps with the oxygen barrier.
Could be not enough priming sugar. I used 4 oz of corn sugar and I ended up with 48 bottles.

 

[jeffpn]

No filtering, I didn't notice any sediment in the bottle but I wasn't paying attention at the time. I conditioned the bottled beer at room temp which is about 78 degrees F. Thanks!

I meant you should be able to see settled yeast now.

 

[J A]

I used 4 oz of corn sugar and I ended up with 48 bottles.

That's plenty...assuming you have some way of making sure it's mixed well throughout the beer. If you start having bottle bombs in the ones that were last in line you know it wasn't distributed evenly.

 

[4ferraras]

That's plenty...assuming you have some way of making sure it's mixed well throughout the beer. If you start having bottle bombs in the ones that were last in line you know it wasn't distributed evenly.

I stirred it slowly, as to not introduce oxygen, while it was siphoning to the bottling bucket.

 

[J A]

Just curious...do you dissolve the sugar in a small amount of boiling water or just but it in dry?
Back when I was bottling, I had one batch fail because the table sugar I added never dissolved fully and a lot of it was left at the bottom when I got to the end of the process. After that, I always made a syrup of it and added that. Also did a slow stir halfway through so as to guarantee better distribution.

 

[4ferraras]

Just curious...do you dissolve the sugar in a small amount of boiling water or just but it in dry?
Back when I was bottling, I had one batch fail because the table sugar I added never dissolved fully and a lot of it was left at the bottom when I got to the end of the process. After that, I always made a syrup of it and added that. Also did a slow stir halfway through so as to guarantee better distribution.

Yes I dissolved the sugar in 2 cups boiling water, poured it into the bottling bucket, then began the siphon. As the bucket filled I stirred several times to ensure a good mix.

 

[J A]

If you've got any fermentation action and there's enough priming sugar, they should all carb eventually.
Good luck!

 

[BoomerBrian]

Yes I dissolved the sugar in 2 cups boiling water, poured it into the bottling bucket, then began the siphon. As the bucket filled I stirred several times to ensure a good mix.

That is the process I used when I was bottling. It always worked well. I used the brewers friend calculator and it always did a good job.