Carbonation

[paulywalks]

Heyup

Brewed an IPA. Had a bad mash...missed the gravity...going for 1068, got 1056 so naturally the IBU went up a lot! Not to an undrinkable level, but slightly unbalanced. Either way I primed with sugar straight into the bottle, warm conditions for 2 weeks, fridge for 1 week. But tried a couple bottles and neither seem to have carbonated properly.

So my question is...can unbalance of SG and IBU have an affect on how a beer carbonates in the bottle? Or do you generally have to prime more for beers with higher IBU's?

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers!

 

[NickW]

I'm not sure it works like that - although I may be corrected.

How did you prime, batch or indivudally?

 

[paulywalks]

Individually...still fancy leaving it a couplr days to see how it turns out, but normally it's fully carbonated by now/.

 

[NickW]

Unsure here..

How much did you prime with? I've never individually primed myself

 

[Ceejay]

IBUs won't mess with carbonation. I had a double IPA with a theoretical 300+ ibu and it carbed up fine. Could be the sugar hasn't mixed in properly, or you didn't put enough in. I'd be batch priming if bi were you

 

[paulywalks]

Duly noted, will batch prime from now on. 1 tspn per pint bottle, 1/2 per 330ml...measured accurately. Appreciate the 330ml bottle measurements aren't decreased properly but has always worked for me.

 

[paulywalks]

Just as a note if anyone was interested. Once I had moved the beer from cold conditioning and left for a further week at room temperature the beer started to carbonate properly, all be it at a lower level than normal, but still...does cold conditioning delay/effect carbonation?

The beer is much more drinkable now :) :drink:

 

[NickW]

The yeast stops working if it's too cold. So it won't carbonate the beer. 2 weeks in the warm is a good amount of time for the yeast to fully ferment out the priming sugar you added. Being in the cool then settles the yeast and clears the beer, and is meant to aid in maturation :thumb:

 

[Macca]

not sure if you do this but when i bottle up after batch priming i half fill a 500ml coopers bottle with wort and then scrunch the air out, i leave this upstairs with the glass filled bottles, when the plastic bottle has fully inflated then i take the whole batch out to the garage, its just a usefull indicator as to whether priming has taken place.