Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Discussion on brewing beer from malt extract, hops, and yeast.
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Hengoedbrewer

Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by Hengoedbrewer » Sun May 15, 2016 2:52 pm

Hi all

I have done about 10 kit brews and recently brewed Way to Amarillo; my first extract. I batch primed the 20L with 85g of brown sugar, and to bottle I used a mix of Coopers PET bottles and some glass. The bottles sat in my spare room for 15 days at about 18-20 degrees, and seemed to be carbed as the PET bottles were rock hard to the touch. After this 15 days indoors, I then put them outside in a small plastic cabinet in the garden to cooler condition, they have been in there for just over a week now. I know it's early but I opened one of the PET's last night and it was totally flat and also not a lot of flavour going on so I am a bit worried.

Is it just a case that the flavours will improve over time and the carbonation will happen over time- much like kit brews?

Any advice would be appreciated.

BenB

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by BenB » Sun May 15, 2016 10:45 pm

What temp was the beer when you primed? That's not a lot of sugar for that brew length. American IPA is easily 2 volumes so I'd expect 120g easily. The taste will improve but it's likely fully carb'd by now. I'm bottling 2 batches tm. Both in the 150-160g range. ..

BigMouth
Steady Drinker
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:18 pm

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by BigMouth » Sun May 15, 2016 11:07 pm

I did an amarillo american pale ale all grain beer very recently -6 weeks ago.

They spent a week in the fv followed by two conditioning with dry hops in the second week then into a bottling bucket where 23l got 112g of cane sugar dissolved in about 300ml of boiled water. They spent 3 weeks in the study at room temp in their bottles and moved to the garage to cool this weekend. Carbonation is lovely, bubbles rising and a good creamy head all the way to the end.

I always prime 5gal with 112g of cane sugar. Brown sugar will be different, only tried it once and it added a caramel something but less carbonation.
Just give it longer assuming your PET bottles are sealed well.
Patience solves most beer making issues

Hengoedbrewer

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by Hengoedbrewer » Mon May 16, 2016 7:00 am

BenB wrote:What temp was the beer when you primed? That's not a lot of sugar for that brew length. American IPA is easily 2 volumes so I'd expect 120g easily. The taste will improve but it's likely fully carb'd by now. I'm bottling 2 batches tm. Both in the 150-160g range. ..
Hi Ben

Thanks for the reply. I bought the ingredients as an extract pack from Brew Uk which suggested 3.5g per l to prime- so I actually used more than recommended!! I guess the beer was at about 19c when primed. This was my first apa brewed (I am only just getting into drinking them!) so went with instructions on this occasion- do you think it has just been underprimed?

Tony1951

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by Tony1951 » Mon May 16, 2016 8:34 am

I find that even 5 gm/l of table sugar adds only very gentle carbonation. At that level, I get a slight 'psst' when I open my pale ales and gentle streams of bubbles rising up the glass. I can taste the sharpness of the dissolved CO2, but there is no big head or fizzing up. Earlier in my brewing experience, I used to go much higher on the gm/l and I had some unfortunate experiences with brews that erupted from the bottle in a foaming mess about a second after opening.

There are some priming calculators which are pretty good, if a bit complicated like this one:

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

Hengoedbrewer

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by Hengoedbrewer » Mon May 16, 2016 10:13 am

Tony1951 wrote:I find that even 5 gm/l of table sugar adds only very gentle carbonation. At that level, I get a slight 'psst' when I open my pale ales and gentle streams of bubbles rising up the glass. I can taste the sharpness of the dissolved CO2, but there is no big head or fizzing up. Earlier in my brewing experience, I used to go much higher on the gm/l and I had some unfortunate experiences with brews that erupted from the bottle in a foaming mess about a second after opening.

There are some priming calculators which are pretty good, if a bit complicated like this one:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
Hi Tony

Thanks. I guess if it's flat I will just have to bite the bullet and put it down to experience; and as with kits seek advice rather than completely trust instructions!! will be disappointing though as the reason I moved to extract was I was getting mixed results with the kit brews so if my first one isn't good that's a shame. I'm planning to do a porter or exmoor beast extract kit from Brew Uk soon. I'll give the Way to Amarillo a good few weeks in the bottle and hope it improves.

WalesAles
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Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by WalesAles » Sat Jun 25, 2016 5:13 am

Hengoedbrewer wrote: I guess if it's flat I will just have to bite the bullet and put it down to experience; and as with kits seek advice rather than completely trust instructions!! will be disappointing though as the reason I moved to extract was I was getting mixed results with the kit brews
Hen,
You should have gone to BIAB after kits! :D
I did one Extract kit and all the faffing about done my bloody head in mun! #-o
I then did BIAB and all that faffing about done my bloody head in as well mun! #-o
Done 5 BIAB now, all Great! (Still done my head in)! I still like doing Kits for the `Bish, Bash, Bosh` approach.
Just drinking a `Wilkos Hoppy Kit` with 6 added hops! Bloody Lovely Mun! :D
Just come in off Nights and I fancied a pint or three! :D :D

WA


My Coopers Kit Stout came 3rd in the `Homebrew Festival`. (Just saying).

Hengoedbrewer

Re: Way to Amarillo- no carb??

Post by Hengoedbrewer » Sat Jun 25, 2016 11:43 pm

WalesAles wrote:
Hengoedbrewer wrote: I guess if it's flat I will just have to bite the bullet and put it down to experience; and as with kits seek advice rather than completely trust instructions!! will be disappointing though as the reason I moved to extract was I was getting mixed results with the kit brews
Hen,
You should have gone to BIAB after kits! :D
I did one Extract kit and all the faffing about done my bloody head in mun! #-o
I then did BIAB and all that faffing about done my bloody head in as well mun! #-o
Done 5 BIAB now, all Great! (Still done my head in)! I still like doing Kits for the `Bish, Bash, Bosh` approach.
Just drinking a `Wilkos Hoppy Kit` with 6 added hops! Bloody Lovely Mun! :D
Just come in off Nights and I fancied a pint or three! :D :D

WA


My Coopers Kit Stout came 3rd in the `Homebrew Festival`. (Just saying).
I still might do a kit from time to time, you can't beat a Coopers stout....I actually have an English Bitter to do with fuggles and maybe more hops....I really like super hopped American Pale ales now more than anything. Well done on the stout matey =D>

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